The largest asteroid collision on Earth occurred in Australia

A crater with a diameter of 520 kilometers, located in southeastern Australia, proves that the largest asteroid collision with Earth occurred in this country.

Scientists claim to be drilling in the area of ​​the town of Deniliquin in New South Wales, and estimate that the crater is much larger than Vredefort in South Africa, which holds the record at 300 kilometers.

The Earth’s surface is constantly changing due to the tectonic activity of its subsoil and erosion by the forces of nature, making it difficult to locate ancient archaeological digs.

In the past, materials ejected from impacts more than 2 billion years old have been found in Australia and Africa, but no corresponding craters have been found.

38 confirmed areas and 43 potential areas of influence

Present-day Australia belonged to the prehistoric continent of Gondwana and was a frequent target of asteroids. 38 proven and 43 potential areas of impact were recorded in the country.

According to a recent study published in “tectonic physicsThe collision is estimated to have occurred 445 million years ago and may have been responsible for the cooling of the atmosphere, which in turn led to the extinction of 85% of the planet’s species.

Deniliquin’s structure has all the hallmarks of a large-scale collision.

For example, magnetic measurements of the area reveal a symmetric ripple pattern in the crust around the core of the structure. This likely arose during the collision, as the extremely high temperatures created strong magnetic forces.

The central low magnetic region corresponds to a 30 km-deep deformation above the seismically defined mantle dome. The summit of this dome is about 10 km shallower than the summit of the regional mantle.

Magnetic measurements also show evidence of ‘radial defects’: cracks radiating radially from the center of a large impact structure. This is also accompanied by small magnetic anomalies, which may represent eruptive “structures”, which are sheets of magma injected into fissures in pre-existing faults.

Radial faults and igneous rocks are typical of large impact structures and can be found in the Vredefort Structure and the Sudbury Structure in Canada.

Currently, most of the evidence for the Deniliquin effect is based on geophysical data obtained from the surface. To prove the impact, physical evidence of the impact must be collected, which can only come from digging deep into the structure.

With information from interesting conversation and geometry