How is the size of a crater related to the size of a meteorite?

Answer 1

Typically the larger and deeper the dimensions of a crater, the more energy (KE) the meteorite had on impact. This generally means that a meteor was massive enough to breach Earth's atmosphere without loosing significant amounts of material. Thus we can infer that the larger the impact crater the more massive the meteor was. As for the actual dimensions, little inference can be made as mass and size do not always correlate directly.

Answer 2

The size of the impacting object is one factor in determining the size of the crater; however, the SPEED of the object is even more important. A small object at very high speed can create a very large crater.

At a minimum, an object falling to Earth will be going at 25,000 miles per hour, or about 7 miles per second. (This is the velocity that an object would reach if it were standing still and fell to Earth under gravity.) But an object falling into the solar system, such as a comet, may have much greater velocities. For example, objects from the recent Orionid meteor shower entered the Earth's atmosphere going 140,000 miles per hour!

Answer 3

The size of a crater is typically related to the size and velocity of the impacting meteorite. Larger and faster meteorites create larger craters upon impact due to the greater amount of energy transferred to the ground. Smaller meteorites may create smaller craters or even no visible crater if they break up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.