Researchers have discovered an impact crater formed on a granite mountain covered with a thick weathering crust in southern China. Jinlin Crater, located in Zhaoqing in China's Guangdong province, is one of approximately 200 identified craters in the world and is younger than 11,700 years old.
An aerial panoramic photo of Jinlin Crater taken on May 12, 2025. Image credit: Chen etc.., doi: 10.1063/5.0301625.
Throughout its geological history, numerous impact craters have formed on Earth.
However, due to tectonic activity and intense surface weathering, most ancient craters have been severely eroded, deformed or buried.
To date, approximately 200 impact craters have been discovered worldwide.
Only four impact craters have previously been reported in China, all of which are located in the northeastern region of the country.
Southern China, in contrast, is characterized by a tropical and subtropical monsoon climate with heavy rainfall, high humidity and elevated temperatures, which promote intense chemical weathering.
The newly discovered impact structure, dubbed the Jinlin Crater, is located in a low mountainous and hilly area in northwestern Guangdong Province, near the coastal village of Jinlin in Deqing County, Zhaoqing City.
With a diameter of 900 m, it is the largest known impact crater of the current Holocene epoch, far exceeding the 300 m Mach Crater, previously the largest known Holocene impact structure.
“This discovery shows that the scale of impact of small extraterrestrial objects on Earth during the Holocene is much greater than previously recorded,” said Dr Ming Chen, a researcher at the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology.
In this case, the “small” impactor in question was a meteorite, not a comet, which would have left a crater at least 10 km wide.
However, Dr Chen and his colleagues have not yet determined whether the meteorite was made of iron or stone.
One of the most amazing features of this crater is how well it has been preserved, especially given the local monsoons, heavy rainfall and high humidity – all conditions that accelerate erosion.
In the layers of granite that help protect and preserve its impact structure, the researchers found many pieces of quartz with unique microfeatures called plane strain features, which geologists use as evidence of a particular type of impact.
“On Earth, the formation of planar strain features in quartz only occurs as a result of intense shock waves generated by impacts from celestial bodies, and its formation pressure ranges from 10 to 35 gigapascals, which is a shock effect that cannot be produced by any geological process on the Earth itself,” Dr. Chen said.
“It is generally accepted that throughout the history of the Earth, every point on its surface faced approximately equal chances of being hit by an extraterrestrial object.”
“However, geological differences mean that historical traces of these impacts have eroded at different rates, with some disappearing completely.”
“This makes the discovery of the Jinlin crater especially significant.”
“The impact crater is a true testament to Earth's impact history.”
“The discovery of Earth's impact crater may provide us with a more objective basis for understanding the distribution, geological evolution, impact history, and regulation of small extraterrestrial bodies.”
teams paper published October 15, 2025 in the magazine Matter and radiation at extremes.
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Min Chen etc.. 2026. Jinlin Crater, Guangdong Province, China: Impact origin confirmed. Matter Radiate. Extremes 11, 013001; doi: 10.1063/5.0301625
