Science & Tech
The Sudbury Basin in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, is one of Earth’s oldest and largest known impact structures, formed 1.849 billion years ago when a large body struck the Canadian Shield. Once about 130 kilometres wide, the crater was later compressed, eroded, and reshaped into its present oval basin. Evidence such as shatter cones and shock-deformed quartz established by about 1970 that it was created by meteorite impact rather than volcanism. The impact also concentrated rich metal-bearing ores, making the region a major source of nickel and copper. Its rocks have been important both to mining history and to planetary geology, including NASA astronaut training.
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Ontario · Canada
