An impactful discovery: impact crater found in northeastern China

A meteorite impact crater has been identified in northeast China, located in the mountainous region of the Changbai Mountain Range. The Hailin crater, measuring 1,360 meters in diameter, is the first known example of a mountain ridge impact crater.

Yin et al. utilized satellite imagery and regional geological data to pinpoint potential sites. Their field surveys and analysis of geological samples provided crucial evidence, including planar deformation features in shocked quartz.

Current geological data suggest that the mountainous terrain in which the crater is located formed over the past 20 million years. The impact event likely occurred during the late Cenozoic Era, after the mountain ridges had already been established. If the impact had taken place in a dense forest, it could have caused widespread devastation.

“These kinds of impact events are at a nuclear explosion level, causing significant damage to the surrounding environment,” said author Ming Chen. “The discovery of the Hailin crater and other craters in China indicates that meteorite impacts of such scale could occur on Earth again in the future.”

Before this century, no meteorite impact craters had been identified in the Greater China region, making the Hailin crater an important find.

“Due to the complex geological processes and evolutionary history of Earth’s mountains, impact craters in the area were rarely found,” said Chen.

The crater’s unique oval shape is attributed to the local terrain, offering valuable insights into the formation of mountain craters.

Plans are underway to conduct further geological drilling to explore the crater’s deep structure and evolutionary history, advancing our understanding of such rare and significant impact events.

Source: “Discovery of the Hailin impact crater in northeast China,” by Feng Yin, Ming Chen, Wenge Yang, and Ho-Kwang Mao, Matter and Radiation at Extremes (2024). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0236993 .

This paper is part of the High Pressure Science 2024 Collection, learn more here .