🌍 Chicxulub Impact Crater
Buried remnant of the asteroid impact that ended the Cretaceous period
📋 Fast Facts
- Located on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, straddling the Gulf of Mexico coastline
- Diameter: approximately 180 kilometers (110 miles)
- Impact date: approximately 66 million years ago, marking the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary
- Largely buried beneath younger sediments and water; visible primarily through geophysical surveys
The Chicxulub impact crater is a massive geological structure centered near the town of Chicxulub Puerto on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. The crater's center lies offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, with the rim extending across both submerged and terrestrial terrain. It is the largest confirmed impact structure on Earth and is widely accepted in the scientific community as the site of the asteroid impact that triggered the extinction event marking the end of the Cretaceous period approximately 66 ...