Science & Tech
9
About 35 million years ago, a two to three mile wide asteroid or comet struck a shallow sea and created the world’s sixth largest impact crater, shattering Earth’s crust, sending debris upward, and killing everything within 600 miles. The crater formed centered about eighteen miles east of Yorktown near Cape Charles, Virginia. Yorktown and Gloucester Point sit on the western rim of the buried crater, and the York River bends sharply to the northeast because it crosses the underlying crater rim. In recent years, considerable scientific research has increased understanding of this feature, and debris from the impact has been identified as far away as the Caribbean Sea.
Hear stories like this as you drive
ExploreHere reads historical markers out loud as you pass them: over 325,000 stories across the US. No account needed.
4.7 · 800+ ratings · Free
FIND IT
Yorktown, Virginia · United States
