This Australian meteor crater is oldest known, says study (earthsky.org)

By Aaron J. Cavosie, Curtin University; Chris Kirkland, Curtin University; Nick Timms, Curtin University; Thomas Davison,Imperial College London, and Timmons Erickson, Curtin University

The world’s oldest remaining asteroid crater is at a place called Yarrabubba, southeast of the town of Meekatharra in Western Australia.

Our new study puts a precise age on the cataclysmic impact, showing Yarrabubba is the oldest known crater and dating it at the right time to trigger the end of an ancient glacial period and the warming of the entire planet.

What we found at Yarrabubba

Yarrrabubba holds the eroded remnants of a crater 40 miles (70 km) wide that was first described in 2003, based on minerals at the site that showed unique signs of impact. But its true age was not known.

We studied tiny impact-shocked crystals found at the site, which show the crater formed 2.229 billion years ago (give or take 5 million years).

This new, precise date establishes Yarrabubba as the oldest recognized impact structure on Earth. It is some 200 million years older than the next oldest, the Vredefort impact in South Africa.



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more: https://earthsky.org/earth/australian-Yarrabubba-meteor-crater-oldest-known