North Sea's Hidden Crater Revealed: 160-Meter Asteroid Triggered 330-Foot Tsunami

Researchers confirm the Silverpit Crater beneath the southern North Sea was formed by a hypervelocity asteroid or comet about 43–46 million years ago. Using advanced seismic imaging and rock samples with shocked minerals, scientists show a ~160-meter-wide impactor struck at a shallow angle, producing a 1.5-kilometer-high curtain of rock and water that collapsed into a tsunami over 330 feet tall. The finding resolves a two-decade-long debate and places Silverpit among Earth's rare, well-preserved underwater impact craters.