2.2 MILLION YEARS AGO

Earth’s Oldest Asteroid Impact Discovered in Australia

The area is 200 million years older than the previous record-holder, the Vredefort Dome in South Africa.

Scientists said Tuesday that about 2.2 billion years ago, an asteroid struck Earth and left a 43 mile-wide crater in Western Australia, creating what they are calling the world’s oldest known impact site. According to the study published Tuesday, the event created an area that’s known as the Yarrabubba impact crater. “The age we’ve got for the Yarrabubba impact structure makes it the oldest impact structure on the planet,” study co-author Chris Kirkland told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. USA Today reports the estimated time of impact is about half the age of Earth itself and 200 million years older than the previous record-holder, the 190-mile-wide Vredefort Dome in South Africa. Scientists said they believe the crash occurred while the Earth was recovering from an ice age, where most of Earth’s surface was covered with ice up to three miles thick. Scientists said the impact could played a role in changing Earth’s climate as well, because the impact could have triggered the release of 11,000 trillion pounds of a greenhouse gas, water vapor, into the atmosphere.