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 Europe! It is worth noting that craters found in Russia are treated as Asian, and aren’t included in this list.

Siljan

The Siljan Ring is a prehistoric impact crater in Dalarna, central Sweden. With a diameter roughly 32 miles, this is one of the 15 largest known impact craters on Earth and the largest in Europe. The impact that created the Siljan Ring occurred when a meteorite collided with the Earth’s surface during the Devonian period. The age of the impact has been estimated at around 377 million years ago. The effects of the impact can clearly be seen in the bedrock in the area. The rocks deformed by the impact are rich in fossils, plus there are large deposits of lead and zinc near Boda at the eastern edge of the Ring.

Mjølnir

With a diameter of 25 miles and estimated age of 142 million years old, Mjølnir is a meteorite crater on the floor of Barents Sea, close to the coast of Norway. The bolide that created the crater was an estimated 1.2 miles wide wide. Mjølnir is the name of Thor’s mythological hammer. The crater name could be an allusion to the power of the weapon, which is often described as breaking and smashing rocks.

Keurusselkä

Located in Central Finland between the towns of Keuruu and Mänttä, Keurusselkä is a lake that covers an area of45.3 square miles. The lake has average depth of 21 feet with a maximum depth of 130 feet. The surface lies at 346 feet above sea level. The lake is 17 miles long and gained notariety when amateur geologists discovered an ancient impact crater on the western shore of the lake.

Nördlinger Ries

The Nördlinger Ries is an impact crater and large circular depression in western Bavaria area and eastern Baden-Württemberg. The city of Nördlingen is located within the depression, about 3.7 miles south-west of its center.

Boltysh

A buried impact crater in the Kirovohrad Oblast of Ukraine, the Boltysh or Bovtyshka crater is named for the nearby village of Bovtyshka. The diameter of the crater is 15 miles with an age of roughly 65 million years. Although it’s age is close to the chicxulub impact, they aren’t related.

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