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The Largest Asteroid Impact In Earth’s History
Long before dinosaurs ever walked the Earth
When people think of asteroids that have struck the Earth, their minds typically land on the infamous rock that crashed into the planet 66 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs. The asteroid, dubbed Chicxulub, was roughly the size of Mount Everest. The cataclysmic event wiped out 75% of all life on Earth. It plunged the planet into a volcanic winter, caused the seas around Mexico to boil, and caused untold destruction. But that asteroid was not the largest asteroid to hit our planet. In fact, compared to previous asteroids from the earliest days of the solar system, Chicxulub was relatively mild.
The Chicxulub crater, located off of the Yucatan Peninsula, was 120 miles in diameter when it formed. The Vredefort impact structure, located in South Africa, was as large as 190 miles in diameter. That makes the Vredefort impact structure 58% larger than the Chicxulub crater. That is astounding.
How large was the asteroid that formed the Vredefort impact structure? Where is this crater today? What impacts would this asteroid have had on the planet?
