The first crater to be identified as the result of an asteroid impact is the Barringer Crater, also known as the Meteor Crater. NASA believes an 80-foot-wide asteroid collided with what is now the surface of northern Arizona about 20,000 to 50,000 years ago.

 

Only in the past few decades have experts considered impact craters worthy of scientific notice. The origin of the Barringer Crater was questioned for many years. Fragments from a meteorite that struck the area ultimately proved that the crater was the result of an impact.