(May 2023 satellite photo, taken by an "Airbus" satellite)
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Impact cratering is the # 1 most common geologic process in the Universe. Some worlds are abundantly cratered (e.g., Mercury and the Moon), while others have relatively few to no visible impact craters (e.g., Venus and Io), due to recent or ongoing resurfacing. Earth has about 200 impact structures ranging in age from Precambrian to Holocene. Many more existed in the past, but erosion has removed them, or they have been obscured by sediment burial. Impact structures formed on seafloors can be destroyed by subduction. The three largest impact structures on Earth are Vredefort (South Africa; 2.203 Ga), Chicxulub (Yucatan, Mexico; 65 Ma), and Subdury (Ontario; 1.85 Ga).
Seen here is the Henbury Impact Crater Field in central Australia, located west-southwest of the "town" of Henbury, Northern Territory. The field consists of 14 small to moderately small impact craters (the largest crater is actually two overlapping craters). The impact event occurred during the Holocene, at about 4.2 ka. The target rocks are Precambrian fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The impactor was an octahedrite, a type of iron meteorite, called the Henbury Meteorite.
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