Crystals reveal the site of the world’s oldest meteorite strike
Mineral chemistry suggests the massive impact 2.3 billion years ago could have made our entire planet much warmer
Chemical analysis of uranium and lead isotopes in ancient crystals have revealed the tremendous age of a meteorite strike in Australia – the oldest impact yet identified. The meteorite struck 2.229 billion years ago, when our planet was covered in ice, and researchers think a massive cloud of water vapour it threw into the atmosphere could have acted as a greenhouse gas to warm the climate of the entire planet.