Scientists may have discovered the largest and oldest crater on earth

One of the theories about the disappearance of dinosaurs from the face of the Earth involves the impact of a giant 10-kilometer asteroid 65 million years ago, which led to the formation of a 180-kilometer-wide crater. However, according to New Scientist, this is nothing compared to a potential crater found in Greenland.

Although not yet confirmed, this would be the discovery of the largest and oldest crater ever found on our planet, caused by the impact of an asteroid of at least 30 kilometers, forming a crater 25 kilometers deep by another 600 in diameter. .

Billions of years of erosion

According to the geologists who found it, all that remains of the potential crater - after billions of years of erosion - is a site of approximately 100 kilometers in a sparsely populated and remote area of ​​the planet, which is why the formation has only been discovered now.

Scientists say that among the many evidences they have found to support the finding, the clearest is the presence of granite-like rocks that have been pulverized and melted in such a way that the only explanation for their formation would be that of a violent one. and sudden impact.

Impact Evidence

In addition, this “deformed” granite is spread over an area of ​​35 to 50 kilometers. According to the experts, no known terrestrial geological process could have caused such a deformation on such a large area.

The oldest known confirmed crater is South Africa's Vredefort crater, which is 2 billion years old and 300 kilometers across. The crater formed by the asteroid that would have decimated the dinosaurs is Chicxulub, located on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, which is over 180 kilometers in diameter and approximately 65 million years old.

Source: New Scientist