Excerpts from article:
...Scientists have identified the world's oldest asteroid crater in Australia, adding it may explain how the planet was lifted from an ice age.
...The asteroid hit Yarrabubba in Western Australia about 2.2 billion years ago - making the crater about half the age of Earth, researchers say.
..."The landscape is actually very flat because it's so old, but the rocks there are distinctive," researcher Prof Chris Kirkland told the BBC. To determine when the asteroid hit Earth, the team examined tiny zircon and monazite crystals in the rocks.
..."It's absolutely possible that there's an older crater out there just waiting to be discovered, but the difficulty is in finding the crust before it erodes and you lose that early Earth history".
...Using computer modelling, the team calculated that the asteroid struck a kilometres-thick ice sheet covering the Earth.
Submitted 1556 days ago
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