All articles tagged with #meteor impact
A Conversation-style piece relays a vivid imagined account by Michael Benton and Monica Grady of the meteorite impact that ended the dinosaurs 66 million years ago: a bright fireball, a sonic boom, mega-tsunamis, and dust-darkened skies that plunge Earth into a decade-long winter, wiping out about 75% of species. The article also warns that humanity’s burning of fossil fuels could trigger a comparable planetary catastrophe.
A 2015 Landsat image shows shimmering gold veins around Ghana's sacred Lake Bosumtwi, formed by a million-year-old meteor impact that created a rampart crater; subsequent satellite views, including a 2024 image, reveal intensified gold mining around the lake, illustrating the juxtaposition of a geologic landmark with modern resource extraction.
Brazilian researchers identified a new tektite field, geraisites, from a 6.3-million-year-old meteor impact that spread tektites over roughly 900 km in Minas Gerais and neighboring states; analyses of silica content, low water, lechatelierite inclusions, and argon-argon dating place the event in the late Miocene, with a buried São Francisco Craton crater likely as the source.
A 1.85 km-wide crater in Heilongjiang’s Lesser Xing’an mountains, named Yilan, is dated to about 46,000–53,000 years ago and may be the youngest major meteor impact on Earth. It was uncovered with satellite imagery from NASA’s Landsat 8 in 2021 and confirmed by geological evidence (shocked quartz, glass). The southern rim is incomplete, with erosion or other geological events proposed as explanations, and while it may be younger than Meteor Crater, the exact age comparison remains cautious.
A study suggests that a meteor impact around 56,000 years ago may have triggered a massive landslide in the Grand Canyon, leading to the formation of a paleolake by damming the Colorado River, with evidence found in driftwood and sediments in Stanton's Cave. Further research is needed to confirm this connection.
A study suggests that a giant meteor impact around 56,000 years ago, forming Barringer Crater, triggered a massive landslide in the Grand Canyon that dammed the Colorado River, leading to a significant flooding event and geological changes in the region.
The Aorounga structure in the Sahara Desert, Chad, is an 8-mile-wide impact crater formed by a "city-killer" asteroid around 345 million years ago. Captured in a 2013 photo by an astronaut aboard the ISS, the crater's eye-like appearance is due to its two rings, with migrating sand dunes surrounding it. These dunes, known as barchan dunes, move significantly over time, as tracked by satellite images. The crater may be part of a "crater chain," with smaller craters nearby suggesting fragments of the original meteor impacted the area.
Libyan desert glass, a mysterious yellow glass found in the Libyan desert, has long puzzled scientists about its origin. A recent study using advanced microscopy techniques has identified the glass as originating from a meteorite impact on Earth's surface. The study found minerals in the glass that can only form under high temperature and pressure conditions, providing evidence for the meteorite impact theory. However, the exact location and size of the parental crater remain unknown, leaving more mysteries to be solved.
Libyan desert glass, a mysterious yellow glass found in the Libyan desert, has been identified as originating from the impact of a meteorite on Earth's surface. Advanced microscopy techniques revealed the presence of zirconium oxide minerals, including cubic zirconia and a rare polymorph called ortho-II, indicating high temperatures and pressures consistent with a meteorite impact. However, the location of the parental crater remains unknown, raising further questions for future investigations.
Libyan desert glass, a mysterious yellow glass found in the Libyan desert, has been the subject of debate among scientists for almost a century. Advanced microscopy technology has now revealed that the glass originated from a meteorite impact on Earth's surface. The study identified different types of zirconium oxide minerals in the glass, indicating high temperatures and pressures that can only be achieved through a meteorite impact or atomic bomb explosion. However, the location of the parental crater, where the meteorite hit, remains unknown, posing more mysteries to be solved.
A meteor impact on the moon was captured by multiple telescopes in Japan on February 23, 2023. The resulting crater is estimated to be around a dozen meters in diameter.
A meteor impact on the moon was captured by multiple telescopes in Japan on February 23, 2023. The impact created a crater estimated to be a dozen meters in diameter.