Eli5 What happens to meteorites that leave craters?

Question

Whenever you see pictures of craters left behind by a meteor, all you can see is a big empty hole, but what happens to the meteor?

In: 1

Answer 1

A mixture of it’s part of the hole and it blows up into rocks and dust and spreads itself around the area. For example the meteor that killed the dinosaurs contained traces of minerals not found naturally on Earth. When that meteor struck so much of it was obliterated and converted into dust that it went up into the atmosphere and settled around the planet for months. There is a specific layer of rock you can dig up pretty much anywhere that is the millimeter or two of Dinosaur-killing-meteor-dust, it’s called the “K-T Boundary”