Impacts and Craters

So what of comets that destroy life? How often do we have these close encounters with space debris? Although we know that such events of Chicxulub occur we have very little experience with such events. Many know of the Siberia event, where a small asteroid or meteorite exploded over land, but what are some of the other close calls that we have had? On this page you will find some of these events along with some craters where we have had encounters with these objects.

There are approximately 180 known craters on our earth that have been identified. I was curious to where some of these craters were. In my searching I found some information on objects that made it to earth and some that didn't, but instead exploded in our atmosphere. One such explosion was the Chicago fire of 1871.

October 8, 1871 Chicago was ablaze with fire. That same evening and that same hour about 12 other separate fires hit four states. That night the town of Pestigo with 1700 residents was wiped out by fire. The loss of life and property in the Chicago fire seemed dim as this town was destroyed. 1200 people died between 7 and 8 p.m. as a fire blast swept through the town knocking them off there feet. At the time of these fires astronomers watching the fading comet Biala?, whose orbit was close to earth. Also meteorite activity was viewed before the fires began.

June 30, 1908 London. Bright Southeast twilight allowed people to read well after midnight because it was so bright. At that time in the Tunguska region of Siberia, had almost 800 square miles that were destroyed. In 1961 meteorite fragments were found in that area, proving that the area had been devastated by a small asteroid or comet that exploded in our atmosphere. Also found in the area was a high concentration of iridium. Iridium is found on earth, but only in small traces, it is found in high levels on meteorites and other rocks from space.

November 9, 1923 Harvey Nininger, a biology teacher near Coldwater Kansas, saw a meteor, "Suddenly a blazing stream of fire pierced the sky."(Comets, Asteroids, and Meteorites by Time Life Books page 108) The American Meteorite Laboratory in Denver, was founded by him in 1937.

1930's in a Brazilian Jungle there was an explosion in the sky, which set the forest on fire. 1800 square miles of forest was destroyed from this object exploding in the atmosphere.

Name	Location	Information
Sudbury Impact Basin	Sudbury Ontario, Canada	Formed 1.9 billion years ago? 125 miles wide. It is the 2nd oldest. Rich with nickel.
Holleford Crater	Kingston, Ontario, Canada	550 million years old. 20 miles from Kingston.
Vredefort Crater	South Africa	1.97 billion years old. Oldest known crater
Chicxulub Crater	Merida, Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula	See Chicxulub Crater page
Barringer Meteor Crater	Arizona, USA	50,000 years old diameter 4,100 feet wide. See this CRP
Aorounga Craters	Chad, Africa	A string of craters approximately 200 million years old
Wolfe Creek	Wolf Creek, Australia	.544 miles wide about 300,000 years old
Roter Kamm	Nambia, Southwest Africa	1.55 miles wide
Mistastin Lake	Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada	17.4 miles wide
Manicouagan	Quebec, Canada	62 miles wide
Clearwater Lakes (Twin impacts)	Quebec, Canada	one is about 20 miles wide and the other is about 14 miles wide.
Deep Bay	Saskatchewan ,Canada	8 miles wide
Bosumtwi	Bosumtwi, Ghana	about 7miles wide
Gosses Bluff	Northern Territory, Australia	about 14 miles wide
Kara-Kul	Tajikistan	28 miles wide, less than 10 million years old
Odessa Crater	Odessa, Texas	Series of Meteorite craters