First time meteorite crater discovered on mountain top

Chinese scientists have found the world's first mountain-top meteorite crater, measuring 1,400m in diameter, in the country's northeast .

The special discovery provides a new perspective to understand the mechanisms of crater formation , impact-metamorphic effects in unique terrains and landscapes, CGTN quoted Chen Ming, a researcher at the Advanced Research Center for High Pressure Science and Technology (HPSTAR) in Beijing, as saying on September 10.

Drone images show the world's first mountaintop meteorite crater in Baijifeng National Forest Park in Tonghua, Jilin Province, northeast China. (Photo: HPSTAR)

'Most asteroids impact the Earth's surface, forming bowl-shaped craters or complex craters with a peak in the middle ,' Chen said. With a diameter of 1,400 meters, the newly discovered crater is located on the top of Baijifeng Mountain in Baijifeng National Forest Park in Tonghua, Jilin Province.

It is a ring-shaped depression, with a height difference of about 400m from the highest rim to the lowest rim, Chen added . Scientists believe it was formed by a bolide impact that occurred after the Jurassic period. A bolide is a rare version of a meteorite that is larger and brighter than a normal meteorite and explodes when it hits the atmosphere.

This explains the large amount of rock fragments composed mainly of sandstone, with a small amount of granite, scattered on the top of Baijifeng Mountain, which were ejected from the crater during the impact event. The formation of the crater also changed the original topography of Baijifeng Mountain, turning its peak into a double peak with elevations of 1,318m and 1,300m respectively.

Meteor craters on Earth are circular depressions formed by the impact of celestial bodies such as asteroids hitting Earth from space. Meteors are not unique natural phenomena but are one of the important foundations for scientists to study space. To date, more than 200 impact craters have been identified and confirmed on Earth, such as Barringer Crater in Arizona, USA and Wolfe Creek Crater in Australia. However, meteorite craters in China are extremely rare.

The Barringer Crater was formed by the impact of a 46-meter-wide, iron-nickel asteroid that is more than 50,000 years old and is well preserved. The original impact created a crater more than 1,200 meters in diameter and 210 meters deep, but it is now only 150 meters deep due to erosion that has partially filled in the crater, according to NASA. Roughly circular in shape, Wolfe Creek is the second largest crater in the world. Geologists estimate it formed 300,000 years ago when a meteorite weighing more than 40,000 tons hit Earth at a speed of about 15 kilometers per second.

To date, researchers have identified about 200 impact craters on the surface of the earth, more than half of which are in Europe, North America, and Australia. Erosion often rapidly destroys or buries craters in areas of tectonically active terrain, such as near fault lines or under the sea.