(CNN) A team of international researchers has verified the discovery of the first meteorite impact crater ever found deep beneath the Greenland ice sheet.

Found under the Hiawatha Glacier, the crater is about 1,000 feet (300 meters) deep and 19 miles (31 kilometers) wide, according to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The Hiawatha crater region shown with and without the Greenland Ice Sheet. Credit: NASA/Cindy Starr

It was likely formed when a half a mile (800 meter) wide iron meteorite struck northwest Greenland less than three million years ago. It was then covered in ice, hiding it from view, NASA said.

A team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark first spotted the crater in July 2015.

The researchers were inspecting a new map of the topography beneath Greenland's ice sheet created by ice-penetrating radar data when they noticed a circular depression under the Hiawatha Glacier.

Read More