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Scientists in Australia find ‘smoking gun’ evidence of world’s oldest meteorite strike

Curtin University researchers use innovative techniques to date three-billion-year-old impact crater in Western Australia’s Pilbara region

A meteorite that struck Earth three billion years ago left behind a “smoking gun” – evidence of the world’s oldest impact crater in a remote part of Australia.

Ancient rocks in Western Australia’s Pilbara region record the event, which occurred during the Archean eon, a period 4 to 2.5 billion years ago, when tectonic plates were beginning to form and early life emerging.

To establish a precise date, Curtin University scientists analysed the age of rare geological features, called shatter cones, in an area known as the North Pole Dome crater, publishing their findings in Geology journal.

Asteroid crater in Pilbara confirmed again as world's oldest

The oldest known asteroid impact is now believed to be the Pilbara. (Supplied: Curtin University)

Scientists have confirmed that an asteroid crater in Western Australia's East Pilbara is the oldest in the world.

It is the second time the ancient crater's age has been pinpointed after a false start last year.

Some scientists are still disputing the findings, saying there are inaccuracies in the study.

Scientists have dated a crater in the Australian outback at 3 billion years old, making it the world's oldest known site of an asteroid impact.

The North Pole Dome, about 1,600 kilometres north of Perth, was the source of controversy last year when it was reported as the oldest in the world, a claim debunked by another group of scientists a month later.

World's Oldest Known Asteroid Crater Is 3 Billion Years Old, Study Confirms

When scientists disagree, sometimes the truth is somewhere in the middle.

That has turned out to be true for the age of an impact crater deep in the remote scrublands of Western Australia's Pilbara desert.

Initially, the team that discovered the North Pole Dome impact structure (aka Miralga) estimated its age at about 3.47 billion years – far older than any other impact evidence discovered to date.

But then a second team challenged that estimate, arguing that the crater must be less than 2.77 billion years old.

Now, the original team has studied tiny crystals in the site's impact structures, and determined that the event that created the crater took place around 3.024 billion years ago – confirming its status as the oldest impact crater known on Earth.

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