Wolfe Creek Crater is a well-preserved meteorite impact crater located in the flat plains of the northeastern edge of the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia, some 150 km south of the town of Halls Creek.

The crater is considered the second largest in the world from which meteorite fragments have been collected, after the famous Barringer Crater in Arizona.

The crater was formed 300,000 years ago when a meteorite weighing more than 50,000 metric tons struck the Earth at an estimated 15 kilometers per second.

The impact punctured a hole on the surface and shattered rocks well below the ground surface, and the intense heat of the impact liquefied both the meteorite and the nearby terrestrial rocks.

Top photo credit unknown.
Bottom photo by Laurence Norah on flickr.

Via Amusing Planet.