Dinosaur-killing asteroid's kin probably caused mystery crater on Earth
The ocean floor is famously less explored than the surface of Mars. And when our team of scientists recently mapped the seabed, and ancient sediments beneath, we discovered what looks like an asteroid impact crater.
Intriguingly, the crater, named “Nadir” after the nearby volcano Nadir Seamount, is of the same age as the Chicxulub impact caused by a huge asteroid at the end of the Cretaceous period, around 66 million years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs and many other species.
The finding, published in Science Advances, raises the question of whether the crater might be related to Chicxulub in some way. If confirmed, it would also be of huge general scientific interest as it would be one of a very small number of known marine asteroid impacts and so give unique new insights into what happens during such a collision.
The crater was identified using “seismic reflection” as part of a wider project to reconstruct the tectonic separation of South America from Africa back in the Cretaceous period. Seismic reflection works in a similar manner to ultrasound data, sending pressure waves through the ocean and its floor and detecting the energy that is reflected back. This data allows geophysicists and geologists to reconstruct the architecture of the rocks and sediments.
Intriguingly, the crater, named “Nadir” after the nearby volcano Nadir Seamount, is of the same age as the Chicxulub impact caused by a huge asteroid at the end of the Cretaceous period, around 66 million years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs and many other species.
The finding, published in Science Advances, raises the question of whether the crater might be related to Chicxulub in some way. If confirmed, it would also be of huge general scientific interest as
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