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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Chicxulub is about 180 km wide, but it is not Earth’s largest confirmed impact structure: NASA ranks it third, behind Vredefort and Sudbury. The comparison needs a caveat. Chicxulub is buried and comparatively well preserved, while the older Vredefort and Sudbury structures have been heavily eroded or deformed, so their estimated original crater dimensions are not the same as the features visible today.
How the largest impact structures compare
The figures below describe different things: estimates of original crater size, a buried structure’s inferred boundary, or a surviving surface remnant. They are useful for scale, not a precise size contest.
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| Structure | Approximate scale and age | What survives and why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Chicxulub, Mexico | About 180 km across; around 65 million years old, according to NASA. | Buried beneath the Yucatán region and comparatively well preserved. The impact is associated with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction. |
| Vredefort, South Africa | The impact occurred about 2 billion years ago. NASA calls it the largest known impact structure; the present Vredefort Dome is about 90 km across. | The dome is an eroded, uplifted remnant, not the full original crater. See NASA Earth Observatory’s Vredefort account. |
| Sudbury, Canada | About 1.8 billion years old; NASA says the original crater is thought to have been at least 200 km across. | Heavily deformed and eroded. The region is also strongly associated with nickel and copper ore deposits. See NASA Earth Observatory’s Sudbury account. |
| Popigai, Russia | Nearly 100 km across and about 36 million years old, according to NASA Earth Observatory. | Relatively well preserved; NASA describes it as the fourth-largest verified structure, tied with Manicouagan. See NASA Earth Observatory’s Popigai account. |
| Manicouagan, Canada | About 100 km across; roughly 215 million years old. | A multi-ring structure. NASA lists it as the sixth-largest confirmed structure on its impact-crater page. |
Why rankings and diameters differ
An impact structure can be altered by erosion, later deformation, burial, and other geological processes. For Chicxulub, the measured diameter depends on which rim or structural boundary is counted. Vredefort’s roughly 90 km figure refers to its present dome, not the original crater; Sudbury’s estimate of at least 200 km refers to its inferred original crater. Those values cannot be compared as if they were measurements of three intact, circular bowls.
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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteRichard Grieve and Ann Therriault’s 2000 comparative review treats Vredefort, Sudbury, and Chicxulub as the largest known terrestrial impact structures, while emphasizing differences in their present structures and uncertainty about original multi-ring morphology. A 2013 review notes that fewer than 200 terrestrial structures preserve the original impact population and identifies Sudbury and Vredefort as the only other structures comparable in size to Chicxulub. NASA has also reported 188 discovered terrestrial craters on its impact-crater page; that is the figure stated on that page, not a current database total.
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Why Chicxulub is especially significant
Chicxulub’s distinction is not simply its size. A specialist review describes it as the only known terrestrial impact structure directly linked to a mass extinction and accompanied by a global ejecta layer. The 2013 comparison also singles it out for its preservation and unequivocal topographic peak ring. These characteristics make its connection to the end-Cretaceous extinction unusually clear.
That does not make Vredefort or Sudbury scientifically secondary. Their immense age and subsequent alteration expose evidence of deep crustal deformation; Sudbury also has major mineral associations. NASA describes Vredefort as the oldest and largest known impact structure, while its visible dome shows how much of an ancient structure can be reshaped over geological time.
Rank #2
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What “crater” means in this comparison
Scientists and explanatory sources sometimes use “crater,” “basin,” and “impact structure” for features that are not intact surface depressions. Chicxulub lies beneath younger deposits; Vredefort is represented at the surface by an eroded dome; Sudbury is deformed. The 2000 review found multiple-ring attributes in all three, most commonly structural features, and morphological ring features in Chicxulub in the evidence it assessed. It cautioned that the evidence did not establish that any of the three originally had the same morphological characteristics as large lunar multi-ring basins. That is the review’s interpretation, not a universal settled classification.
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The short comparison
- Largest by NASA’s description: Vredefort, though the present ~90 km dome is an eroded remnant rather than the full original crater.
- Largest stated original-crater estimate among these figures: Sudbury, thought to have been at least 200 km across before deformation and erosion.
- Best-preserved of the three largest: Chicxulub, which remains buried and is unusually well linked to a global extinction event.
- Smaller but relatively well preserved: Popigai, at nearly 100 km across, and Manicouagan, at about 100 km.
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