Wetumpka crater

Wetumpka crater, just east of downtown Wetumpka, is Alabama’s only confirmed impact crater. Roughly 4.7 miles wide, it was formed about 85 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous when a meteorite about 1,100 feet in diameter struck a shallow sea that then covered this part of Alabama. The crater is unusually well preserved, retaining its original rim and impact breccia, although much of the evidence is obscured or lies on private land. Geologist Thornton L. Neathery first recognized the structure in 1969–70, but its impact origin was not conclusively proved until 1998 through the discovery of shocked quartz. Research in 2002 established it as an internationally recognized impact crater.

Wetumpka, Alabama · United States