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A two-peaked mountain in northeastern China is the site of the world's first confirmed mountaintop crater.A nearly mile-wide (1.6 kilometer) divot in a Chinese mountaintop is actually an impact crater from a long-ago meteorite landing.The newly discovered crater, located in northeastern China not far from the North Korean border, is the first confirmed mountaintop crater on Earth. Researchers aren't sure when the impact happened, but it left a circular depression and split the mountaintop into two peaks, known as Front Baijifeng and Rear Baijifeng.The mountain peaks are littered with rock fragments known locally as "celestial stone," which turns out to...

The Yilan crater. (NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin/Landsat data/USGS) A crescent-shaped crater in Northeast China holds the record as the largest impact crater on Earth that formed in the last 100,000 years. Prior to 2020, the only other impact crater ever discovered in China was found in Xiuyan county of the coastal province of Liaoning, according to a statement from the NASA Earth Observatory. Then, in July 2021, scientists confirmed that a geological structure in the Lesser Xing'an mountain range had formed as a result of a space rock striking Earth. The team published a description of the newfound impact crater...