Researchers Baffled To Find World's Oldest Impact Crater, Redefines How Our Planet Was Shaped
Land features reflect the history of a region. The incidents that unfold in an area typically leave their mark on the landscape. Experts recently spotted a land feature that stood apart from others of its kind, stated Curtin University. Findings regarding this feature have been published in Nature Communications.
The meteorite impact crater researchers have spotted in Australia has been deemed the oldest of its kind in the world. If the assertion is true, then this revelation significantly alters the present perceptions regarding the origin of life and the trajectory of planet development. The crater was detected during the exploration of rock layers in the North Pole Dome. Examinations indicated that the formation was 3.5 billion years old. "Before our discovery, the oldest impact crater was 2.2 billion years old, so this is by far the oldest known crater ever found on Earth,” Professor Tim Johnson, from Curtin University and lead author of the study, shared.
Researchers spotted the crater after their attention was drawn by ‘shatter cones,’ present 40 kilometres west of Marble Bar in WA’s Pilbara region. Shatter cones are rock formations that form due to the pressure brought on by a meteorite strike. Experts claim that these shatter cones at the North Pole Dome were made when a meteor struck the ground here at a speed of more than 36,000km/h. The study claims that the speed provides unequivocal evidence that a meteorite landed in the area 3.5 billion years ago. This crash resulted in a humongous planetary event and formed a 100 km wide impact crater. The event must have been so intense that debris flew out everywhere, all across the planet.
Experts believe there must be more ancient craters like this on Earth, as past evidence suggests that such clashes were typical in the early solar system. "We know large impacts were common in the early solar system from looking at the Moon," Professor Johnson said. "Until now, the absence of any truly ancient craters means they are largely ignored by geologists." Experts want this to change as they believe examining more such impact craters, will give them an idea about how life started on Earth. "Uncovering this impact and finding more from the same time period could explain a lot about how life may have got started, as impact craters created environments friendly to microbial life such as hot water pools," Co-lead author Professor Chris Kirkland, from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said.
Researchers further claim that impact craters could reveal more about the development of Earth's crust. "It also radically refines our understanding of crust formation: the tremendous amount of energy from this impact could have played a role in shaping early Earth’s crust by pushing one part of the Earth’s crust under another, or by forcing magma to rise from deep within the Earth’s mantle toward the surface. It may have even contributed to the formation of cratons, which are large, stable landmasses that became the foundation of continents," Kirkland added.