Measuring 250 mile ( 400 km ) wide , the now - buried volcanic crater in Australia was ground zero for a cataclysmic impingement that occurred some 300 million years ago . But is it really the largest on Earth ?
accord toa new studypublished in the geology journal Tectonophysics , the asteroid broke into two before it struck the ground . When the objects hit the Warburton West Basin , each fragment measured more than six miles ( 10 km ) across .
Today , the impact volcanic crater can no longer be figure . But by model the geophysical social organization below the surface , the Australian National University scientists were able to isolate signs of two massive impingement . The researchers also line up geophysical anomalies and quartz distortion in the samples pulled from drill cores . Some of the rock , for example , had turned to glass — a phenomenon consistent with a massive impact .
“ It would have been curtains for many sprightliness mintage on the planet at the time , ” lead researcher Andrew Gliksontold the BBC .
That said , no grounds has been found to connect it to any particular muckle extinction . As noted in the BBC article , “ The rocks around the encroachment geographical zone are roughly 300 to 600 million years old , but a layer of ash tree that would have been throw off up by the impingement has not been detected as sediment in rock layers from the same period . ”
Interestingly , the web site of the clangoring was let out by accident as the scientists were bore for a geothermal research project .
The investigator say it ’s the largest impact arena on Earth , but that may not be the case . Last year , geophysicists Norm Sleep and Don Lowe draw an impact effect that occurred around 3.26 billion year ago , leaving a crater roughly 297 miles ( 478 kilometre ) wide . The asteroid measured an stupefying 36 miles ( 58 miles ) across .
https://gizmodo.com/insane-details-are-emerging-about-ancient-asteroid-stri-1561730259
[ ViaBBC ]
Top figure of speech : Don Davis .
Related : New Evidence emerge In funding Of Double Asteroid Impact possibility
https://gizmodo.com/new-evidence-emerges-in-support-of-double-asteroid-impa-1547126671
asteroidsGeologyScience
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