With over 190 confirmed impact craters having hit Earth, there are a plethora of interesting discoveries! A good example of this being that scientists can roughly determine the age of an impact based upon the size of the crater. Impact craters less than ten thousand years old typically have a diameter of around 330 feet. Almost all craters between 10,000 and 1 million year in age are less than 2.4 miles in diameter. For craters ages between 1 and 10 million years ago, they have a diameter of 3 miles or more. Craters with diameter 12 miles or more are all older than 10 million years ago. Knowing this, looking at the 5 largest impact craters will probably be some of the oldest in Africa!

Vredefort

Although it has since eroded away, crater was thought to be around 100–200 miles across when it was formed, and has since eroded away. The asteroid that is thought to have been the source of the impact is thought to be 6 – 9 miles in diameter. The remaining structure, which forms the underlying bedrock, is located in present-day Free State province of South Africa. It is named after the town of Vredefort, which is near the center of the crater. The crater is thought to have been formed around 2 billion years ago.

Morokweng

Buried beneath the Kalahari Desert near the town of Morokweng in South Africa, it is located close to the Botswana border. The impact structure is estimated to be 47-50 miles in diameter at least and estimated to be around 146 million years old. The structure isnt exposed to the surface so it wasn’t discovered until 1994, when it was mapped magnetic and gravimetric surveys.

Oasis

Located in Libya, the meteor crater Oasis is about 3 miles in diameter. Because the crater has been significantly eroded, the original crater size and age can be roughly estimated at this time. The original crater rim is estimated to have been 11 miles in diameter and the crater is estimated to be less than 120 million years old

Luizi

Located in the Kundelungu Plateau of Haut-Katanga province, in the southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Luizi is a meteorite impact structure. The only recognized meteorite impact crater in Central Africa, the crater was discovered in 2011 via satellite imagery. The crater is roughly 10.5 miles in diameter.

Gweni-Fada

Located in Chad, Gweni-Fada is a meteorite crater in Chad, Africa that is an asymmetric structure that is deeply eroded. A broad depression forms a crescent around two thirds of the inner complex zone. Its age is estimated to be less than 345 million years.

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