What is the largest confirmed impact crater on Earth?

The Vredefort crater is the largest confirmed impact crater on Earth. Its original impact structure is estimated to have measured roughly 180 to 300 kilometres across, although billions of years of erosion have removed much of the visible crater.

The impact occurred in what is now South Africa about 2.02 billion years ago, during the Paleoproterozoic Eon. A massive asteroid struck the ancient crust, producing intense shock pressures, melting and fracturing rock, and pushing material upward into a central dome. That surviving uplift is known as the Vredefort Dome.

Because the original crater has been deeply eroded, the site no longer resembles a neat circular bowl such as Arizona’s Barringer Crater. Geological evidence, including shatter cones and other shock-related features, confirmed its impact origin in the twentieth century.

Chicxulub is more famous because it is linked to the dinosaur extinction, while Sudbury is also enormous and geologically important. However, Vredefort remains the accepted largest confirmed terrestrial impact structure.