Largest meteorite crater discovered on Earth

Scientists believe underground cracks in Australia are traces of the largest crater ever created when a meteorite crashed into Earth.

Simulation of a meteorite hurtling toward Earth. Photo: NASA

Experts discovered traces of an impact zone measuring more than 400 km in diameter at a depth of 1.9 m, in the Warburton Basin, near the border of South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. The collision is believed to have occurred more than 300 million years ago.

Researcher Andrew Glikson of the Australian National University believes the structures could be from a large meteorite that split in two. Each split meteorite is more than 10 km across.

The impact crater has long since disappeared, but traces of two fractures were found underground during deep geothermal drilling. "Large impacts like this may have played a significant role in the evolution of the Earth," Glikson said yesterday in a Telegraph report.

The team has not yet been able to pinpoint a specific extinction event associated with these impacts. Glikson says it’s a mystery. Chicxulub is a meteorite crater buried beneath Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula that’s linked to the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

According to VnExpress