Much has changed since the time of impact. Water levels have fallen and risen, and sand, silt, and clay have filled in the remaining crater. Today, the ancient crater lies buried beneath the Chesapeake Bay, with its center under the small Virginia town of Cape Charles, located on the Delmarva Peninsula. It gouged a crater 53 miles wide and fractured bedrock to a depth of well over a mile. Today, those disrupted rock units greatly affect the pattern of ground-water flow throughout southeastern Virginia.
Scientists expect to begin drilling at two different sites in Virginia.
The first drill site, in Mathews County, will be a short distance inside the outer rim of the crater. Plans are to drill a core hole 1,500 feet deep at this location. The second drill site, near Shadow, Virginia, is located well within the ring-shaped trough of the crater. Scientists are going to try and reach the bottom of the crater at this location, expecting to drill a core hole between 2,000 and 2,500 feet deep. Last year, USGS scientists drilled a core hole at the southernmost rim of the crater , which happened to lie beneath NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.