Scientists find ‘smoking gun’ evidence of world’s oldest meteorite strike in Western Australia
Scientists from Curtin University have identified evidence of the world's oldest meteorite impact crater in Western Australia's Pilbara region. By analyzing shatter cones in the North Pole Dome, researchers dated the event to three billion years ago.
Why it matters
This discovery provides critical data on the Earth's early geological history and the violent environmental conditions present during the emergence of early life.
The well-preserved rock formations in the North Pole Dome crater in the Pilbara region of Western Australia offer ‘a rare glimpse of the violent processes that shaped the early Earth’. Photograph: Curtin University View image in fullscreen The well-preserved rock formations in the North Pole Dome crater in the Pilbara region of Western Australia offer ‘a rare glimpse of the violent processes that shaped the early Earth’. Photograph: Curtin University Australian climate and environmental reporting Geology Scientists find ‘smoking gun’ evidence of world’s oldest meteorite strike in Western Australia Curtin University researchers use innovative techniques to date three-billion-year-old impact crater in Pilbara region
The article is a standard scientific report based on published research findings.
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