FAST FACTS
Where is it? Yilan Crater, Heilongjiang Province, China (46.38232967, 129.31209278)
What is in the picture? The incomplete remains of the world’s youngest impact structure
Which satellite took the picture? Landsat 8
When was it taken? 8 October 2021
This striking satellite image shows a recently discovered meteor crater in China that is likely to be the youngest impact structure on Earth and the largest in its wider age range. The horseshoe-shaped depression is also only the second impact crater ever discovered in the country.
Chinese scientists discovered that the incomplete ring was an impact crater in mid-2021about three months before this picture was taken. Until then it had largely gone unnoticed because it is surrounded by dense forests. Although the local people knew about the structure, they called it Quanshan, which means “circular mountain ridge”, suggesting that they had no idea of its extraterrestrial origin.
But when the research team dug down to 1,440 feet (440 m) below the crater’s floor, they found “shocked quartz, molten granite, glass containing holes formed by gas bubbles, and teardrop-shaped glass fragments” — all clear signs that a sizable space rock had slammed down there, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Carbon dating revealed that the crater formed sometime between 46,000 and 53,000 years ago, meaning it may be the youngest of around 200 large impact craters on Earth.
Until this discovery, the most accepted “youngest large crater” on Earth was Barringer Crater (also known as Meteor Crater) in Arizona, which dates back 50,000 years, according to Lunar and Planetary Institute. Given the uncertainty surrounding Yilan Crater’s age, scientists cannot be certain that it is younger than Barringer Crater, although it is thought likely.
Yilan Crater is also the largest of all impact craters less than 100,000 years old, breaking another record previously held by Barringer Crater, which is about 1.2 km across.
As you can see on the satellite image, the southern third of the crater rim is missing. Scientists are unsure exactly when or how this part of the crater rim disappeared. However, sediment found on the crater floor suggests that there used to be a lake in the crater, strongly suggesting that the structure was once fully intact, according to the Earth Observatory.
Chinese craters
Yilan Crater is the first impact crater to be discovered in China since the 1.1-mile-wide (1.8 km) Xiuyan Crater in Liaoning Province, which dates back to between 330,000 and 1.1 million years ago, was confirmed in 2009.
Given how large China is – about the same size as the US by land area – it has long been a mystery why more impact craters have not been found there. However, others have been uncovered following the discovery of the Yilan Crater.
In September 2023, researchers discovered a third Chinese crateraround the same size as the Yilan crater. The crater is carved into the top of a mountain near the North Korean border, and dates back at least 150 million years.
Then, in October 2025, confirmed researchers a fourth impact structure, called Jinlin Crater, on a mountain near Zhaoqing in China’s Guangdong Province. This crater is only about 3,000 feet (900 m) wide and can be dated to as late as the current epoch, known as the Holocene, which began 11,700 years ago, according to Sci newsalthough the age has not been confirmed.
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