Spanning more than 5 miles (8 km) in diameter, the crater was found using seismic measurements, which enable scientists to probe what lies deep listed below Earths surface area.
Veronica Bray, a research scientist in the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, is a co-author of a research study in Science Advances detailing the discovery. She focuses on craters discovered throughout the planetary system.
Called after a nearby seamount, the Nadir crater is buried up to 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the seabed about 250 miles (400 km) off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. According to the research study group, the asteroid that produced the newly discovered Nadir crater could have formed by the separation of a parent asteroid or by a swarm of asteroids in that time duration. The crater will be one of less than 20 confirmed marine effect craters discovered on Earth if verified.
Veronica Bray, photographed here during a see to Meteor Crater in Northern Arizona, is an expert on crater development. Credit: Sarah Sutton/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
What impact would the asteroid have had?
Bray used computer simulations to identify what kind of crash happened and what the impacts may have been. The simulations recommend the crater was caused by the collision of a 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter-wide) asteroid in 1,600 to 2,600 feet (500 to 800 meters) of water.
” This would have produced a tsunami over 3,000 feet high, along with an earthquake of more than magnitude 6.5,” Bray said. “Although it is a lot smaller than the international catastrophe of the Chicxulub impact, Nadir will have contributed substantially to the local destruction. And if we have discovered one brother or sister to Chicxulub, it opens the question: Are there others?”
The estimated size of the asteroid would put it roughly on par with asteroid Bennu, the target of OSIRIS-REx, the UArizona-led NASA asteroid sample return mission. According to Brays computations, the energy released from the impact that triggered the Nadir crater would have been around 1,000 times higher than the tsunami brought on by the enormous undersea eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano in the Polynesian country of Tonga on January 15.
” These are preliminary simulations and require to be fine-tuned when we get more information,” Bray said, “however they supply crucial brand-new insights into the possible ocean depths in this location at the time of impact.”
What does the crater look like?
The crater was found somewhat by accident by Uisdean Nicholson, a geologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. He was analyzing seismic reflection information from the seabed during a research job committed to seafloor spreading, the geologic procedure that triggered the American and african continents to wander apart, consequently opening the Atlantic Ocean.
” Ive analyzed lots of seismic data in my time, however had actually never ever seen anything like this. Instead of the flat sedimentary series I was anticipating on the plateau, I found an 8.5-kilometer depression under the seabed, with really unusual characteristics,” Nicholson said. “It has particular functions that point to a meteor effect crater. It has a raised rim and an extremely prominent main uplift, which is constant for big impact craters.
” It likewise has what appears like ejecta outside the crater, with really disorderly sedimentary deposits extending for tens of kilometers beyond the crater,” he included. “The qualities are simply not consistent with other crater-forming procedures like salt withdrawal or the collapse of a volcano.”
The asteroid crashed around very same time as the dinosaur killer
” The Nadir Crater is an extremely exciting discovery of a 2nd effect close in time to the Cretaceous– Paleogene extinction,” said research study co-author Sean Gulick, an effect professional at the University of Texas at Austin. “While much smaller sized than the extinction causing Chicxulub impactor, its very existence needs us to examine the possibility of an impact cluster in the current Cretaceous.”
According to the seismic data, the sediments impacted by the asteroid likely refer the Cretaceous-Paleogene border– a sedimentary layer demarcating completion of the Cretaceous duration and last recognized occurrence of dinosaurs. Nevertheless, there is some uncertainty about the exact time of impact, restricted by the resolution of the information.
” Despite 4 billion years of impactors striking Earth, only 200 have actually been found,” Gulick stated. “It is therefore amazing news whenever a brand-new potential impact is found, specifically in the hard-to-explore marine environment.”
Nicholson has currently obtained moneying to drill into the seabed to verify that its an asteroid effect crater and test its precise age.
Reference: “The Nadir Crater offshore West Africa: A prospect Cretaceous-Paleogene effect structure” by Uisdean Nicholson, Veronica J. Bray, Sean P. S. Gulick and Benedict Aduomahor, 17 August 2022, Science Advances.DOI: 10.1126/ sciadv.abn3096.
” This would have created a tsunami over 3,000 feet high, in addition to an earthquake of more than magnitude 6.5.”– Veronica Bray
Discovery of a big effect crater below the North Atlantic Ocean reveals that more than one asteroid might have spelled doom for the dinosaurs.
A freshly found effect crater below the seafloor suggests that more than one asteroid might have struck Earth during the time when dinosaurs went extinct.
Proof of an asteroid effect crater beneath the North Atlantic Ocean has actually been discovered by researchers. It might force researchers to reconsider how the dinosaurs reached completion of their reign.
The team believes the crater was brought on by an asteroid colliding with Earth around 66 million years ago. This is around the exact same time that the Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth off the coast these dayss Yucatan, Mexico, and wiped out the dinosaurs.
Named after a nearby seamount, the Nadir crater is buried up to 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the seabed about 250 miles (400 km) off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. According to the research study team, the asteroid that created the newly discovered Nadir crater could have formed by the breakup of a parent asteroid or by a swarm of asteroids in that time period. If validated, the crater will be one of less than 20 verified marine effect craters discovered on Earth.
“It has particular functions that point to a meteor effect crater. It has a raised rim and an extremely prominent main uplift, which is constant for large impact craters.