Jinlin

Key facts

Country

China

Diameter

900 m

Age

less than about 11,700 years (early to middle Holocene)

Location

23.30° N, 111.80° E

Jinlin is an impact crater about 900 m across on a hillside near Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province, southern China. Its impact origin was confirmed in 2025, and it is thought to be the largest known crater formed since the end of the last ice age, about 11,700 years ago.

What it hit. The impactor struck granite. In the hot, wet climate of southern China, granite slowly rots into a thick layer of crumbly weathered rock, and the crater was dug into this layer and the solid granite beneath. Heavy monsoon rains erode such landscapes quickly, so the survival of the crater's shape is itself a sign that it is young.

Proof of impact. Scientists studying the crater found many quartz grains crossed by planar deformation features, microscopic sets of parallel planes produced only by the shock of an impact. Their form shows that the rock was squeezed to pressures of roughly 10 to 35 gigapascals, hundreds of thousands of times the pressure of the atmosphere, far beyond anything a volcano or landslide can produce.

Age. The age was estimated from the rate at which the weathered soil around the crater has been eroded. It points to the early or middle Holocene, the warm period since the last ice age, so the crater is less than about 11,700 years old.

Why it matters. Before Jinlin, the largest known craters of this age were only a few hundred metres across. Its discovery suggests that impacts big enough to make kilometre-scale craters have struck the Earth more recently than once thought. The impactor is unknown.

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