60-Million-Year-Old Meteor Strike Uncovered on Remote Isle of Skye

By Samantha Mathewson, Live Science Contributor | December 26, 2017 10:48am ET

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A thin slice of ejecta deposited on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, 60 million years ago.
Credit: Simon Drake

A remote island in Scotland bears traces of out-of-this-world minerals from a 60-million-year-old meteorite impact.

A team of geologists from Birkbeck, University of London was examining volcanic rocks on the remote Isle of Skye in Scotland when they uncovered rare minerals that have never before been found on Earth, according to a study that was published Dec. 12 in the journal GeoScienceWorld.

In the study, the team focused on a 3.3-foot-thick (1-meter) layer at the base of a 60-million-year-old lava flow deposit. Using an electron microprobe, which shoots electrons at samples and analyzes the X-rays the samples emit in response, the researchers found that rocks from the area contained rare minerals from space. [Crash! 10 Biggest Impact Craters on Earth]

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