List of impact structures on Earth in the context of Chicxulub impact crater

The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore, but the crater is named after the onshore community of Chicxulub Pueblo (not the larger coastal town of Chicxulub Puerto). It was formed slightly over 66 million years ago when an asteroid, about ten kilometers (six miles) in diameter, struck Earth. The crater is estimated to be 200 kilometers (120 miles) in diameter and 30 kilometers (19 miles) in depth. It is one of the largest impact structures on Earth, alongside the much older Sudbury and Vredefort impact structures, and the only one whose peak ring is intact and directly accessible for scientific research.

The crater was discovered by Antonio Camargo and Glen Penfield, geophysicists who had been looking for petroleum in the Yucatán Peninsula during the late 1970s. Penfield was initially unable to obtain evidence that the geological feature was a crater and gave up his search. Later, through contact with Alan R. Hildebrand in 1990, Penfield obtained samples that suggested it was an impact feature. Evidence for the crater's impact origin includes shocked quartz, a gravity anomaly, and tektites in surrounding areas.

The Sudbury Basin (/ˈsʌdbəri/), also known as Sudbury Structure or the Sudbury Nickel Irruptive, is a major geological structure in Ontario, Canada. It is among the oldest and largest known impact structures on Earth. The structure, the eroded remnant of an impact crater, was formed by the impact of an asteroid 1.849 billion years ago in the Paleoproterozoic era. The ores of the Sudbury Basin are known to contain nickel, copper, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, and ruthenium.

The basin is located on the Canadian Shield in the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The former municipalities of Rayside-Balfour, Valley East and Capreol lie within the Sudbury Basin, which is referred to locally as "The Valley". The urban core of the former city of Sudbury lies on the southern outskirts of the basin.

The Vredefort impact structure is one of the largest impact structures on Earth. The crater, which has since been eroded away, has been estimated at 170–300 kilometres (110–190 mi) across when it was formed, the latter estimate suggesting the initial crater was larger than Chicxulub crater, the largest mostly intact impact crater on Earth. The remaining structure, comprising the deformed underlying bedrock, is located in present-day Free State province of South Africa. It is named after the town of Vredefort, which is near its centre. The structure's central uplift is known as the Vredefort Dome, which is around 100–120 kilometres (62–75 mi) in diameter. The impact structure was formed during the Paleoproterozoic Era, 2.023 billion (± 4 million) years ago. It is among the oldest known impact structures on Earth, after Yarrabubba (2.23 billion years old) and possibly Miralga.

In 2005, the Vredefort Dome was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites for its geologic interest.