Why do meteorites leave deep impact craters on the moon but not on Earth?

Oh, they do...

Look up "Meteor Crater" in Arizona - it's a nearly mile-wide crater created 80,000 years ago when a big rock hit our surface. If you look at the moon, then think of the Earth getting hit with 8 to 20 times *more* meteors - because we're a much bigger target, with a larger gravity field.

The reason we don't see them much today is because our surface is very active. Tectonics - quakes, volcanoes, other surface-altering forces, and weather - water and wind "erase" the features on Earth in just a dozen generations. There've been many features on Earth caused by meteor impacts; some are so big, we're not able to recognize them as such - except from orbit, when it becomes clear.

1. Meteor craters are not very deep in proportion to their diameter.

2. There are more than 150 known meteorite craters on Earth. They are often hard to see because weather and erosion masks their presence, or they're covered with trees. The link below catalogs all the meteorite craters on Earth.

3. Visit a crater or two near you. I've done this, and it's really interesting to actually stand on the rim of a meteorite crater and look across at the opposite rim.

They do, but we also have plate tectonics and weathering so it destroys the evidence. The vast majority of impacts were billions of years ago so that's a long time for the ones on Earth to be eroded away. The Moon doesn't have those things so a crater that formed a billion years ago will still be the same today unless another meteorite hit the same spot later on.

The Earth has an atmosphere. The moon doesn't. That means most meteors burn up before they hit the ground and the ones that do make the ground are partially burnt up. When the ones that do hit they leave a crater but it gets eroded by atmospheric forces over time...

The Earth does have deep impact craters. Hudson Bay, Meteor Crater in Arizona, Wolf Creek Crater in Australia, Gulf of Mexico.

The earth's atmosphere protects Earth from meteors, and most meteors burn up when they're going through Earth's atmosphere. Also, on Earth there is weathering and erosion, and they can wipe away the craters over time. The moon has no atmosphere and has nothing to erode itself.

The Earth's atmosphere burns up almost all meteorites before impact. The moon has no such atmospheric defence blanket.

The moon has a much smaller atmosphere than Earth's and has softer terrain.