Why is the Earth’s surface not riddled with craters as is that of the Moon?

Answer 1

Because the Earth is constantly remodeling the surface: action of tectonic plates creating lava, volcanoes, etc. Action of wind & water causing erosion.

Answer 2

Because the moon's surface changes much more slowly than the Earth's.

Firstly, the Earth has volcanism and plate tectonics. Old features on Earth often eventually get covered over by volcanoes or drawn down subduction margins. The last major volcanism on the moon, by contrast, was the events that formed the Maria (the dark plains that we see as the "man in the moon") billions of years ago. So the moon's surface is static, while the Earth's surface is being constantly destroyed and recreated by plate tectonics.

Second, Earth has atmosphere, water, and life. All these things contribute to wearing down features on the surface, especially water erosion. On the moon the only source of erosion is micrometeorite impact and the occassional weak moonquake. Neil Armstrong's footprints, assuming they remain undisturbed, could easily last longer than many great monuments on Earth.

The early Earth was almost certainly just as crater covered as the moon. But on Earth 4.5 billion years of plate tectonics, volcanism, wind, and water has completely destroyed most of those craters. The moon's surface, by contrast, has changed very little in that time.

Answer 3

The craters on the Moon were formed by large meteoroids and small asteroids at least three billion years ago. The Earth was subject to exactly the same bombardment...our atmosphere did little to protect us from objects this size. The scars on Earth are every bit as numerous as on the Moon, but have been worn away by billions of years of geological and meteorolical erosion. Over 170 large meteor craters are known in North America alone.

Answer 4

It is absolutely certain that, in proportion to its surface area, the Earth's surface has been bombarded by just as many and just as large meteorites as the Moon's. Any of them big enough to cause a crater are big enough to hardly notice our atmosphere as they zip through it..

But on Earth, unlike the Moon, old craters either get eroded flat by weather and running water, or buried by lava flows, or subducted at tectonic plate boundaries, or sunk in shallow seas and covered up by new sedimentary rocks. The web site lists the 174 currently-known impact sites on Earth which have not disappeared in this way, and are still positively identifiable. The two biggest are the 300 km Vredefort Ring in South Africa, and the 250 km Sudbury site in Ontario in Canada. Both of these are very old, nearly half the age of the Earth.

Answer 5

Earth has an atmosphere and any object (such as an asteriod) that encounters the atmosphere, will (for the most part) burn up from the friction caused by the speed at which the asteroid enters the atmosphere sometimes, however, asteroids can be large enough that the entire thing does not burn up in our atmosphere and will cause craters. The moon, on the other hand, does not have an atmosphere, so asteroids do not have a way of slowing down before impacting the surface

Answer 6

The earth has many craters but unlike the moon , the earth has an atmosphere & weather systems that break down & erode the craters.

Answer 7

As many others have already stated, the earth's atmosphere has protected the earth. When objects head towards the earth and enter the atmosphere, friction causes the objects to heat up. Eventually, many of them burn up or break up before hitting the earth. But larger objects have hit the earth and left evidence. Click on the source link I posted below to view photos of some of the larger craters we have on earth.

Answer 8

most stuff burns up in the atmosphere. We do have some craters around the world from much larger objects hitting. 70% of smaller objects that actually land are in the water, so they wont leave a crater.
The moon doesnt have atmosphere or water to defend itself.

Answer 9

Many eons ago (billons of years) the Earth was in fact very like our nearest satilite (the Moon), but because of how the earth has evolved over time it has formed a dense atmosphere from moisture. The density of atmophere increased and thus formed a protective layer causing foreign objects burn up and therefore making it difficult to reach the earth's surface (and cuase creaters). Most creaters we do have (like those on the ocean floor) were formed before teh atmosphere formed, unlike the moon which has no protective layer.

Answer 10

It is. Most of them are simply hidden by the ocean or have worn away over millions of years. You also have to take into account that the continents are in constant motion, so some of them would have been erased by continental shifting.

And, yes, the fact that we have an atmosphere to protect us from many smaller meteors, keeps us from having anywhere near the amount the moon has.