Many people refer to these structures as “Meteorite Craters”, but that’s at least partially incorrect. Meteor is the term used to describe an object that goes through our planet’s atmosphere, and meteorite is used after the object hit the planet. These are just some of the most amazing ones, and easy to see for an inexperienced eye. They are in no particular order, and some pictures are not natural, but taken via radar or other form of imaging.
Lake El´gygytgyn, central Chukotka, NE Siberia, Russian Federation
Diameter: 12 km
Photo by Vesta, CC BY 3.0
Pingualuit crater in Nunavik, northern Quebec, Canada, looking west. It contains a lake named Lake Pingualuk.
Diameter: 3.4 km
Photo by NASA. Courtesy of Denis Sarrazin CC BY 3.0
Clearwater lakes (two different craters) as seen from a space shuttle, Canada
Original diameter: 26km
Via Youtube. CC BY 3.0
Manicouagan
Diameter: 100 km
Photo by ISS. CC BY 3.0.
Canyonlands National Park, Utah, US
Diameter: 10 km
Photo by AsturKon. CC BY 3.0
Lake Bosumtwi is the only natural lake in Ghana
Diameter: 10.5 km
Photo by NASA, CC BY 3.0
Aorounga, Chad
Diameter: 17 km
Photo by ISS, CC BY 3.0
Gweni Fada, Chad
Diameter: 14 km
Photo by NASA World Wind, CC BY 3.0
Gosses Bluff, Australia
Diameter: 24 km
Photo by NASA, CC BY 3.0
Arizona Crater, the first proven, best preserved impact crater and the biggest in the world
Bad thing is that visiting it costs.
CC BY 3.0, via Wiki Commons.
