Find the oldest Earth's crater

An oldest meteorite, formed on Earth about 3 billion years ago, was discovered in the west of Greenland island. It is said to appear after an asteroid collision of 30km in diameter.

Illustrating asteroids colliding with Earth creates a giant meteorite
3 billion years ago - (Photo: Carsten Egestal Thuesen, GEUS)

According to RIA Novosti (Russia), a group of Russian and European Union (EU) researchers discovered the crater in 2009. However, it took three years of research, scientists determined it is a hole created by meteorites rather than volcanic activity and is also the oldest and largest meteorite crater today.

The team said that the diameter of the meteorite was 100km, but they thought that before being affected by natural conditions such as erosion, the initial diameter of this pit could be up to 500km.

Greenland Island

Previously, the largest and oldest meteorite pit on Earth was known as Vredefort in South Africa, about 300 km in diameter and dating back 2 billion years.