Overview
- Researchers from Shanghai and Guangzhou report the Jinlin crater near Zhaoqing, Guangdong, in Matter and Radiation at Extremes as a confirmed impact structure.
- Size estimates center on roughly 900 meters in diameter, with some reporting a range of 820–900 meters and an approximate depth of 90 meters.
- Impact origin is evidenced by planar deformation features in quartz, which form only under shock pressures of about 10–35 gigapascals.
- Erosion-based analysis places formation in the early-to-mid Holocene, establishing it as the largest known crater from that epoch.
- The crater is preserved within a thick granite weathering crust despite a monsoon climate, and the impactor is identified as a meteorite with its iron versus stony composition still undetermined.