Vepriai is the largest impact crater

Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...

 in Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

, named after the town of Vepriai

Vepriai

Vepriai is the largest town in Ukmergė district, Lithuania, situated south-west of Ukmergė with population of about 1,000 . The capital of Vepriai elderate.-History:Vepriai was founded on a hill near Vepriai Lake and south of Šventoji River...

 located at its center. The crater is not exposed to the surface, having been eroded

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

 and covered by sedimentary rocks during the last glacial period.

Vepriai crater is 8 km (5 mi) in diameter

Diameter

In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...

 and its age is estimated to be greater than 160 ± 10 million years (Upper Jurassic or earlier). The meteorite struck soft sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 and limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 rocks thus its initial depth exceeded 500 m (1,640.4 ft) but the site was soon covered by sedimentary rocks, sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

 and clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

. A small lake has formed in the Jurassic period in the impact site.

The crater was reported in 1978, as proven by occurrence of shatter cone

Shatter cone

Shatter cones are rare geological features that are only known to form in the bedrock beneath meteorite impact craters or underground nuclear explosions...

s and impact glass in drill-core samples acquired during a geophysical research of the locality.