A geological formation in a village in Xiuyan Man Autonomous Prefecture, Liaoning province has been proven to be a meteor crater, according to Beijing Sci-Tech Report. Based on estimations, the crater was formed about 39,000 years ago, and it is the first proven meteor crater anywhere in China.

Currently there are 64 families living in the bowl-shaped crater. In 2007, a researcher with the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chen Ming, carried out research in Xiuyan and named the special landform "Xiuyan Pit." Then, in March 2015, Chen and his team returned to Xiuyan and spent five months drilling in order to acquire rock samples from 300 meters beneath the ground. Now Chen has finally found indisputable evidence that the pit was created by a meteor.

Chen's colleague, Chen Hongping, said that the crater is 150 meters deep. After its formation about 39,000 years ago, a lake came to occupy the pit where sediments had been deposited. Approximately 11,000 years after that, the lake disappeared due to a notch in the east end of the pit and it turned gradually into the meteor crater that can be seen today.

Another scientist, Xie Xiande, said that a total of 176 meteor craters in 32 different countries have been documented since the 1960s. The one in Xiuyan is the first one discovered within Chinese territory.

Poised to fill a gap in the research of such landforms in China, the Xiuyan meteor crater is of great significance to the future study of geology and evolution, Xie said.