Small meteors have large impacts. The Ames Astrobleme Museum in Ames, Oklahoma is dedicated to a football-sized meteor that struck north-central Oklahoma millennia ago and created an impact crater — an astrobleme — more than eight miles wide.
Buried by 9,000 feet of sediment, the Ames astrobleme is barely visible on the surface. In 1991, oil and gas company Continental Resources, Inc. discovered the crater. Before the Ames astrobleme’s discovery, geologists believed impact craters were unlikely oil repositories, but geologists from Continental Resources found evidence for oil at the site. Today, the Ames crater area has produced millions of barrels of oil.