A 400 kilometre-wide impact zone from a huge meteorite¹ that broke in two moments before it slammed into the Earth has been found in Central Australia. The crater² from the impact millions of years ago has long disappeared. But a team of geophysicists has found the twin scars of the impacts -- the largest impact zone ever found on Earth -- hidden deep in the earth's crust.

 

Lead researcher Dr Andrew Glikson from the ANU School of Archaeology³ and Anthropology⁴ said the impact zone was discovered during drilling as part of geothermal research, in an area near the borders of South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

 

"The two asteroids⁵ must each have been over 10 kilometres across -- it would have been curtains for many life species on the planet at the time," said Dr Glikson.

 

The revelation of such ancient violent impacts may lead to new theories about the Earth's history.

 

"Large impacts like these may have had a far more significant role in the Earth's evolution than previously⁶ thought," Dr Glikson said.

 

The exact date of the impacts remains⁷ unclear. The surrounding rocks are 300 to 600 million years old, but evidence of the type left by other meteorite strikes is lacking.

 

For example, a large meteorite strike 66 million years ago sent up a plume⁸ of ash which is found as a layer of sediment⁹ in rocks around the world. The plume is thought to have led to the extinction¹⁰ of a large proportion of the life on the planet, including many dinosaur¹¹ species.

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