This list of impact structures (including impact craters) on Earth contains the majority of the 194+ confirmed impact structures given in the Earth Impact Database as of 2024.
Alphabetical lists for different continents can be found under Impact structures by continent below.
Unconfirmed structures can be found at List of possible impact structures on Earth.
These features were caused by the collision of meteors (consisting of large fragments of asteroids) or comets (consisting of ice, dust particles and rocky fragments) with the Earth. For eroded or buried craters, the stated diameter typically refers to the best available estimate of the original rim diameter, and may not correspond to present surface features. Time units are either in ka (thousands) or Ma (millions) of years.
Less than ten thousand years old, and with a diameter of or more. The EID lists fewer than ten such craters, and the largest in the last 100,000 years (100 ka) is the Rio Cuarto crater in Argentina. However, there is some uncertainty regarding its origins and age, with some sources giving it as < 10 ka while the EID gives a broader < 100 ka.
The Kaali impacts () during the Nordic Bronze Age may have influenced Estonian and Finnish mythology, the Campo del Cielo () could be in the legends of some Native Argentine tribes, while Henbury () has figured in Australian Aboriginal oral traditions.
The EID gives a size of about for Campo del Cielo, but other sources quote .
From between 10 thousand years and one million years ago, and with a diameter of less than :
From between ten thousand years and one million years ago, and with a diameter of or more. The largest in the last one million years is the Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan and has been described as being capable of producing a nuclear-like winter.
The source of the enormous Australasian strewnfield (c. 780 ka) is a currently undiscovered crater probably located in Southeast Asia.
From between 1 and 10 million years ago. The large but apparently craterless Eltanin impact (2.5 Ma) into the Pacific Ocean has been suggested as contributing to the glaciations and cooling during the Pliocene.
Most recorded impact craters are over 10 million years old, or have widely uncertain ages. The Chicxulub impact has been widely considered the most likely cause for the CretaceousâÂÂPaleogene mass extinction, and the Manicouagan impact has been less definitively linked to the Adamanian-Revueltian turnover and a possible marine extinction event. Some scholars have linked other impacts like the Popigai impact in Russia and the Chesapeake Bay impact to later extinction events, though the causal relationship has been questioned.
Some impact events are only known from events like layers of spherules or tektites generated by the impact recorded in contemporary rocks, and their impact structures may no longer exist.
, the Earth Impact Database (EID) contains 190 confirmed impact structures. The table below is arranged by the continent's percentage of the Earth's land area, and where Asian and Russian structures are grouped together per EID convention.
The global distribution of known impact structures apparently shows a surprising asymmetry, with the small but well-funded European continent having a large percentage of confirmed impact structures. As meteorites impacting Earth should impact evenly across the surface, it is suggested this situation is an artifact, highlighting the importance of intensifying research in less studied areas like Antarctica, South America and elsewhere.