An underwater dome in the Timor Sea was made by a huge asteroid impact more than 35 million years ago, scientists have revealed.
New research from a team at the Australian National University has found the crater, which is believed to have hit the Earth during an era of particularly heavy celestial bombardment, could be related to a sharp fall in global temperatures preceding the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Named the Mount Ashmore impact after the underwater platform it was found on, the crater is estimated to be at least 50 kilometres in diameter. Two other impacts of comparable size, one in Siberia and one in Chesapeake Bay, off Virginia in the United States, are believed to have occurred around the same time.
Dr Andrew Glikson says in a press release the impact cluster hit Earth about one million years before the ocean gap between Antarctica and South America, known as the Drake Passage, opened up. “The opening of the Drake Passage allowed continuous circulation of the circum-Antarctic ocean current, isolating the Antarctic continent and allowing the onset of its large ice sheet, which acts as a ‘thermostat’ for the Earth’s climate.”
The findings were first published in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences.
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“New research from a team at the Australian National University has found the crater, which is believed to have hit the Earth during an era of particularly heavy celestial bombardment, could be related to a sharp fall in global temperatures preceding the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet.” Is this a new branch of science - flying craters - no less?