Why don't we see many craters on earth?

Answer 1

Because most meteors break up in the atmosphere before they can hit the ground, or are so small by the time they do that they don't leave a crater. Also the weather (wind and water) erodes what craters there are fairly quickly.

The moon, however, has no atmosphere, so it's constantly poc-marked by meteoroids, and the craters last forever, until they're changed by something else, usually another meteoroid.

AnswerMost certainly the atmosphere helps, but the other conclusion from the evidence would be that the earth is not as old as claimed. The amount of cosmic dust, given the known rate of accumulation, is also too small and also supports an earth much younger than theorized. AnswerAnother possibility, generally the most widely held view, is that there have been many crater causing events on the earth, and processes of erosion have destroyed or eliminated some of them. There are some extremely large craters on earth, and some would not even be visible in a plane or with satellite imagery, unless special probes are used. Also, the moon and the other planets, particularly our giant neighbor Jupiter, have diverted many objects that might otherwise have collided with earth. We witnessed such an event just a few years ago when a comet crashed into Jupiter, leaving a gash in Jupiter's gaseous surface roughly the size of earth itself.

We also have to remember that earth is the only planet we know of that has a vast and immensely powerful water cycle. Deposited dust has been laid down, percolated into soil, turned into rock and other kinds of deposits, and none of these processes are observed on any other planet or moon. Some argued that the moon missions would be a spectacular disaster because the lander would sink into several meters of accumulated space dust. That did not happen.

Answer 2

Earth is biologically active. Life - mainly vegetative - keeps filling the craters in.

Edit: in fact these are the main reasons, as far as I know :

1) Erosion caused by weather

2) Concealment by sediments

3) Renewal of the Earth's surface by tectonic plates.

Answer 3

The most heavy bombardment of asteroids on bodies in the solar system was in the early days of the solar system - 4 billion years ago. The impacts on the earth at that time - and for the next several; billion years - were eroded away by weather, something the earth has that the moon and Mercury, for example, do not have. Recent hits, such as Meteor Crater in Arizona, have not had time to weather away yet.

Answer 4

Look more closely; the Moon is COVERED with craters. Big craters, little craters, little craters in big craters, chains of craters.... LOTS of them.

We can even sometimes see meteors striking the Moon.

Answer 5

It's mainly because the Earth has an atmosphere.

If you hit air hard/fast enough, it becomes difficult to penetrate. Smaller objects falling from the sky burn up before they reach the surface.

Atmosphere also mean that there's erosion. Wind and water will move soil around, erasing/filling in any smaller craters. Big ones becomes more vague.

And don't forget that most of the Earth's surface is water. Anything apart from the fairly big ones hitting there won't leave a lasting mark at all.

Answer 6

Because they craters on any planet and moon are too far away to see and some are tinier than others. One crater on the moon is so big you can see it if you look very closely. Others might not be visible because of the planets' or moons' surface.

Answer 7

The environment covers them up over time. Wildlife grows over it and it gets smoothed out little by little. On the moon, there are no such environmental or atmospheric conditions, so the craters are permanent there and remain evident.

Answer 8

Weathering. It's not that Earth hasn't taken a lot of hits, its that we have weathering processes that have over time obliterated most of the evidence.

Answer 9

Erosion has erased most of the impact craters on earth.