Haughton impact crater is located on Devon Island, Nunavut in far Northern Canada.

When the crater formed, the shale and siltstone were peeled back to expose the basement; material from as deep as 1,700 m (5,600 ft) has been identified.

The temperature is below the freezing point of water for much of the year, and the limited vegetation is slow-growing, leading to very little weathering.

For this reason Haughton retains many geological features that lower-latitude craters lose to erosion.

For example, the centre of the crater contains impact breccia (ejected rock which has fallen back into the impact zone and partially re-welded) that is permeated with permafrost, thus creating a close analogue to what may be expected at crater sites on a cold, wet Mars.