1.8 km Wide Largest Known Meteor Impact Crater on Earth Found In China
#thecosmosnews In 2019, researchers first described a 1.15-mile-wide crater in a mountain range in northeast China; late last year, a NASA satellite imaged the crater from space, giving a broad new view the impact’s aftermath. The crater is in Heilongjiang Province’s Yilan County. According to the researchers who described it in 2019, it’s the second confirmed impact structure in China. The site has long been known to locals, who call it “Quanshan,” or “circular mountain ridge,” according to a NASA Earth Observatory release. The southern rim of the crater has eroded, so from above the impact site looks more like a crescent. The rim is nearly 500 feet tall at its highest points, the researchers reported, and is slightly wider than China’s previously confirmed impact strucgture, Xiuyan, which is 1.12 miles across. This image was captured by the Operational Land Imager aboard Landsat 8 on October 8, 2021. Farmland is visible to the southeast, and on the right side of the image is the Balan River.