Historic review Impact cratering has only been recognized as a field for study for the last few decades. The process itself and its result have been observed for much longer. In fact, history of the research dates back to the 17th century, when Galileo published his “Sidereus Nuncius” in 1610. It is probably the first well-documented paper on astrophysics at all and especially on impact field. The book was devoted to crated formation on the Moon. Three centuries have passed before the process was properly understood, but this first step is still quite important.
The second step was made in 1880s with the scientific acceptance of meteorites. Lunar craters were finally concluded to be meteoritic, not volcanic. But as you see, the possibility of impact cratering on the Earth was not even discussed. In fact, the very first hypothesis of crater formation on Earth was only suggested in 1906 when an engineer Barringer demonstrated that the widely known Coon Mountain crater must have had a meteoritic origin. This hypothesis was considered absolute rubbish, but it gave food for thoughts. In fact, 1906 can be considered the year of birth of impact cratering as a science field.
Nowadays impact cratering is a perfect example of a synthetic science which was born and developed at the cross-road of astronomy, physics, geology and mathematics. Only by working side to side scientists from all over the world made it possible to discover some amazing facts o the history of our planet.