Ancient Asteroid, WA: Impact site suggests collision was larger than anything we’ve seen before

A GIANT asteroid hit Australia 3.46 billion years ago leaving a crater hundreds of kilometres wide.

A GIANT asteroid hit Australia 3.46 billion years ago leaving a crater hundreds of kilometres wide, causing cliffs to crumble and triggering earthquakes and tsunamis.

Scientists have found evidence of the giant asteroid that crashed in Western Australia’s northwest, which would have had an impact much larger than anything humans have experienced.

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) believe tiny glass beads, called spherules, were formed from an asteroid impact up to 30km wide.

But Andrew Glikson from the ANU’s Planetary Institute said they were unable to determine exactly where the asteroid hit as volcanic activity and tectonic movements would have destroyed the crater itself.

An asteroid that size would have created a crater hundreds of kilometres wide and would have significantly changed the face of Australia.

“The impact would have triggered earthquakes of magnitude greater than terrestrial earthquakes, it would have caused huge tsunamis and would have made cliffs crumble,” Dr Glikson said.

“Material from the impact would have spread worldwide. These spherules were found in sea floor sediments that date from 3.46 billion years ago.”

Researchers tested the glass beads and found platinum, nickel and chromium in levels which match those found in asteroids.

The asteroid is the second oldest known to have hit the Earth and one of the largest.

Dr Glikson along with Arthur Hickman from Geological Survey of Western Australia found the glass beads in a drill core from Marble Bar, in northwestern Australia.

The area is renowned for having some of the oldest known sediments on Earth.

The sediment layer, which was originally on the ocean floor, was preserved between two volcanic layers, which enabled very precise dating of its origin, researchers say.

The findings have been published in scientific journal Precambrian Research.