Published 14:17 IST, January 24th 2020
Asteroid that struck Australia may have caused climate change: Scientists
Asteroid strike in Australia over 2 billion years ago could have been responsible for global warming and the thawing of 'snow ball' Earth that facilitated life
Scientists believe that an asteroid that struck Earth over 2.2 billion years ago and created the Yarrabubba crater in Australia could have driven global warming. At the time of the collision, the planet was believed to have been encased in ice and researchers believe that it was the collision that began the global thaw.
Asteroid strike possibly responsible for life on Earth
Researchers believe that during the time of impact the location was covered in a layer of ice that was 5 kilometres thick. The violent impact of the asteroid strike would have converted the immense amounts of ice into water vapour which would have acted as a greenhouse gas and trapped heat in the Earth's atmosphere.
Researchers believe that this thaw helped made the Earth's atmosphere and a climate favourable for simple microbes to thrive and possibly create the basis for life on Earth. The asteroids strike at Yarrabubba in the state of Western Australia coincides with the end of the deep freeze that the Earth was experiencing.
Yarrabubba crater
Timmons Erickson, a scientist from NASA, studied and determined the age of the Yarrabubba meteor crater in Australia to be 2.229 billion years old, making it the oldest crater to be discovered by scientists. According to reports, the Yarrabubba crater is 200 million years older than the Vredefort Dome crater in South Africa, which was regarded as the world's oldest until this discovery.
The research was lead by Timmons Erickson with a team from Curtin University, Australia and Imperial College, London. According to reports, in order to determine the age of the crater, the team looked for samples of rocks that showed evidence of being subject to shock and heat due to a meteor strike. Although, the team collected samples of rock containing two distinct materials i.e. zircon and monazite.
The Yarrabubba crater in Australia is an impact structure and is the eroded remains of a previous impact crater. The crater is located in the northern Yilgarn Craton near Yarrabubba Station between the towns of Sandstone and Meekatharra, Australia. Its 2.229 billion years of age places the incident at the end of the first age when Earth was mostly frozen and is commonly known as the Huronian Glaciation.
Updated 14:17 IST, January 24th 2020