A Mysterious Structure Discovered Deep Beneath Australia Has Left Researchers Puzzled

The researchers believe they have found evidence of a crater left behind by an ancient asteroid that could be more than three times the size of the one that led to the extinction of dinosaurs millions of years ago.

For many years, researchers referred to this crater as one of the largest on Earth. With it came one of the most devastating mass extinctions of living creatures ever. Now, scientists are left in shock after discovering an even larger crater buried beneath Australia.

However, according to the researchers, the crater is buried deep beneath the Australian continent. 

While it hasn’t been fully excavated yet, those working at the site claim it is buried underneath millions of years of sediment and could potentially measure around 520 km in diameter, per The Independent. 

This has allowed researchers to suggest that the energy upon impact may have been equivalent to around 100 million megatons of TNT, which is about 1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 

According to researchers, the dust and debris thrown into the air likely blocked out the sun, affecting the Earth’s climate. 

However, after initial inspections, researchers have suggested that the crater in Australia could be around three times the size of the Chicxulub crater and over 200 km larger than South Africa’s Vredefort impact structure.

According to the researcher, the impact may have occurred as much as 420 million years ago. However, his team admits they have yet to discern just what the consequences of such an impact may have been.

“The history of Earth’s bombardment by asteroids is largely concealed,” Glikson wrote, alluding to the idea that there could be even larger impact structures buried beneath the Earth.

The work of Glikson, Yates, and everyone else involved in the recent study confirmed their initial assumptions: Deep beneath the continent of Australia lies the proof of an ancient asteroid crater that could help them better understand our ancient past.

“When an asteroid strikes, it creates a crater with an uplifted core. This is similar to how a drop of water splashes upward from a transient crater when you drop a pebble in a pool,” explained Glikson.

This central uplifted dome is a key characteristic of large-impact structures. However, it can erode over thousands to millions of years, making the structure difficult to identify,” he said. 

The researcher suggested that sediment alone could bury the enormous crater. However, he explained that a collision between two tectonic plates deep beneath the surface of the Earth could also subsume the impact crater.

This includes symmetrical ripples in the Earth’s crust that often appear at sites subject to extreme temperatures following an asteroid impact. Researchers have also noticed “radical faults” that appear at other impact sites.

“For instance, magnetic readings of the area reveal a symmetrical rippling pattern in the crust around the structure’s core. This was likely produced during the impact as extremely high temperatures created intense magnetic forces,” he wrote.

The team will continue to work at the site in the following years, hoping to gather more information on the crater’s origins.

He continued, however, “For proof of impact, we’ll need to collect physical evidence of shock, which can only come from drilling deep into the structure.”

According to Glikson, this event was twice as powerful as the Chicxulub impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Going forward, the researchers will aim to prove the Deniliquin impact led to the Late Ordovician mass extinction event.

“It is also possible the Deniliquin structure is older than the Hirnantian event and may be of an early Cambrian origin (about 514 million years ago),” he wrote. 

Going forward, the researchers will aim to prove the Deniliquin impact led to the Late Ordovician mass extinction event.

“The next step will be to gather samples to determine the structure’s exact age. This will require drilling a deep hole into its magnetic center and dating the extracted material,” he said. 

According to NASA, “About two billion years ago, an asteroid measuring at least 10 kilometers across hurtled toward Earth. The impact occurred southwest of what is now Johannesburg, South Africa, and temporarily made a 40-kilometer-deep and 100-kilometer-wide dent in the surface.”

“If you consider that the original impact crater was a shallow bowl like you would serve food in, and you were able to slice horizontally through the bowl progressively, you would see that the bowl’s diameter will decrease with each slice you take off,” said Roger Gibson of the University of the Witwatersrand and an expert on impact processes. “For this reason, we are unable to categorically fix where the edge now lies.”

However, if Glikson and his team prove that Australia’s Deniliquin structure is larger, it would take the number one spot.