Australia's Spider Crater, Seen From Space
A Landsat 9 image published by NASA's Earth Observatory on Oct. 13 shows the Spider Crater in Western Australia's Kimberley region, the eroded remains of an ancient meteorite impact.
Written on Oct. 16, 2026 from the source documents listed below, after the dates it covers.
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The story
NASA's Earth Observatory published a new view on Oct. 13 of the Spider Crater, an ancient impact structure in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Operational Land Imager on the NASA-USGS Landsat 9 satellite captured the image on Sept. 20, 2026.
The full structure is oval, about 13 by 11 kilometers (8 by 7 miles), and its spiderlike center measures about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) across. Geologists think that center is the remnant of a central uplift, the raised part of a crater floor that forms as the ground rebounds from the shock of an impact.
Estimates based on rocks in the region place it between about 900 million and 600 million years ago, in the late Precambrian.
The light-colored legs are sandstone ridges that survived while other rock layers in the impact zone eroded away over hundreds of millions of years. For decades after the feature was discovered, scientists debated how it formed, and some proposed a volcanic past.
Field geologists found the answer in shatter cones, fan-shaped fractures that form only when intense shock waves travel through rock. They are found throughout Spider Crater's central dome.
Lab studies of shocked quartz and zircon crystals from the sandstone have since helped researchers reconstruct the angle at which the meteorite struck. The date of the impact is uncertain.
Estimates based on rocks in the region place it between about 900 million and 600 million years ago, in the late Precambrian.
Sources
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Image and footage credits: Lead image: NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey · NASA Images and Media Usage Guidelines (NASA content generally not subject to U.S. copyright) · NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey · NASA Images and Media Usage Guidelines (NASA content generally not subject to U.S. copyright)
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