The Meteorites They have changed the history of the planet more than once. One of the best known examples is the impact that ended the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, a colossus of the size of Mount Everest that unleashed a global catastrophe. However, what geologists have just found has nothing to do with the destruction of an era, but with the origin of our world.
Researchers from Curtin University, in Australia, have discovered the oldest impact crater ever recordedwith an age of 3.5 billion years. The finding, published in the magazine Nature Communicationschange what was known so far about the impacts on the primitive earth and its role in the development of life.
The oldest meteorite in the world
The crater, located in the Pilbara region, in Western Australia, was identified thanks to the presence of “shipyard cones”, geological structures that are only formed under the extreme pressure of a meteorite impact. According to the researchers, the space rock caused by this event was traveling to more than 36,000 km/hy left a crater of more than 100 kilometers wide.
«We know that the great impacts were common in the primitive solar system by observing the Moon», Explains Tim Johnson, co -director of the study and teacher in Curtin. «Until now, the absence of truly old craters means that geologists ignore them largely. This study provides a crucial piece of the puzzle of the history of impacts on Earth and suggests that There may be many other ancient craters that could be discovered over time, ”he says.
Before this finding, the oldest known impact crater had “barely” 2.2 billion years. That is to say, Pilbara’s exceeds the record in more than 1,000 million years. “So this is, by far, the oldest crater ever found on earth,” says Johnson.
How did this meteorite influence the origin of life?
Beyond the impact itself, what most interests scientists is relationship between these events and the evolution of the primitive land. Chris Kirkland, co -author of the study, believes that this discovery could explain how the first favorable environments for life emerged.
«Discover this impact and find more than the same period of time I could explain a lot about how life could have begunsince the impact craters created favorable environments for microbial life, as hot water pools, ”says Kirkland.
Likewise, the event could have influenced the formation of the primitive earth’s crust. “The enormous amount of energy of this impact could have played a role in the formation of the earth’s crust by pushing one part of it under another, or by forcing the magma to ascend from the depths of the Earth’s mantle to the surface,” he adds.
«Given how strange it is to find evidence of this type due to the geological recycling processes of the Earth, This is a great advance in the understanding of the early days of the planet», Explains Kirkland in statements to Space.com.
However, some experts believe that there is still work to do to determine the exact size of the crater and its impact on the history of the earth.
