Images related to Pingualuit Crater, Canada

Lonar Crater, India
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Lonar Crater, India

India’s Lonar Crater began causing confusion soon after it was identified. Lonar Crater sits inside the Deccan Plateau—a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock leftover from eruptions some 65 million years ago. Its location in this basalt field suggested to some geologists that it was a volcanic crater. Today, however, Lonar Crater is understood to result from a meteorite impact that occurred between 35,000 and 50,000 years ago.

Published Apr 13, 2008

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El’gygytgyn Crater, Russian Far East
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El’gygytgyn Crater, Russian Far East

Russia’s Lake El’gygytgyn rests inside a 3.6-millon-year-old meteorite crater, and preserves the longest continuous climate record in the Arctic.

Published Dec 14, 2008

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Iturralde Crater, Bolivia
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Iturralde Crater, Bolivia

Published Sep 10, 2002

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Ries Crater, Germany
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Ries Crater, Germany

Germany’s Ries Crater (or Nördlinger Ries) is not easily discerned in space-based images. The crater’s existence was probably just as subtle to the medieval Europeans who established a settlement inside it and unknowingly matched their 1-kilometer- (0.6-mile-) wide city to the likely diameter of the meteorite that formed the crater.

Published Mar 9, 2008

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Crater Lake, Oregon
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Crater Lake, Oregon

Crater Lake is formed from the caldera of Mount Mazama. Part of the Cascades volcanic chain, Mount Mazama sits between the Three Sisters volcanoes to the north and Mount Shasta to the south. The catastrophic eruption of Mount Mazama that occurred approximately 7,700 years ago destroyed the volcano while simultaneously forming the basin for Crater Lake. Eruptive activity continued in the region for perhaps a few hundred years after the major eruption. Evidence of this activity lingers in volcanic rocks, lava flows, and domes beneath the lake surface; the small cone of Wizard Island is the only visible portion of these younger rocks. Although considered a dormant volcano, Crater Lake is part of the United States Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory seismic monitoring network.

Published Sep 18, 2006

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Kebira Crater
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Kebira Crater

Published Mar 8, 2006

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Wolfe Creek Crater
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Wolfe Creek Crater

Wolfe Creek Crater is the second largest crater in the world from which meteorite fragments have been collected. Because of its excellent preservation, the crater clearly shows the classic features that result from a large meteorite striking the Earth.

Published Feb 24, 2008

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Goat Paddock Crater
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Goat Paddock Crater

Acquired April 30, 2010, this natural-color image shows Goat Paddock Crater in northwestern Australia. The slightly elliptical crater spans roughly 5 kilometers.

Published May 23, 2010

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Ice-Free Crater Lakes on Ungava Peninsula
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Ice-Free Crater Lakes on Ungava Peninsula

Usually the lake within Pingualuit Crater freezes by mid-September. In 2012, its circular blue surface still appeared to be free of ice in late-November.

Published Nov 29, 2012

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Tenoumer Crater, Mauritania
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Tenoumer Crater, Mauritania

Deep in the Sahara Desert lies a crater. Nearly a perfect circle, it is 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles) wide, and sports a rim 100 meters (330 feet) high. Modern geologists long debated what caused this crater, some of them favoring a volcano. But closer examination of the structure revealed that the crater’s hardened “lava” was actually rock that had melted from a meteorite impact.

Published Feb 17, 2008

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