A rock hurtled through space, slammed into Earth at 36,000 km/h, and left a mark that’s been hiding in plain sight for 3.5 billion years. Now, a team of researchers from Curtin University has finally found it, rewriting what everyone thought they knew about ancient impacts. If you thought dinosaurs had it bad, imagine a time when the planet was constantly getting smacked by cosmic debris.
The crater—more accurately, what’s left of it—was discovered in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, around 40 kilometers west of Marble Bar. The key evidence? **Shatter cones.** These jagged, radiating rock formations only form under the brutal pressure of a meteorite strike, and their presence means something massive hit this spot long before any complex life existed.
Before this discovery, the oldest known impact crater was a sprightly 2.2 billion years old. That’s effectively a toddler compared to this one. “Until now, the absence of any truly ancient craters means they are largely ignored by geologists,” said Professor Tim Johnson, one of the study’s co-leads. Translation: we’ve been sleeping on some of the most violent, formative events in Earth’s history.
The impact that created this crater wasn’t just a flashy explosion—it had consequences. Think **continent-breaking, magma-spewing, atmosphere-altering consequences.** The energy unleashed could have pushed sections of Earth’s crust under each other, triggering early plate tectonics. It may have even helped form **cratons**, the ancient, stable landmasses that eventually became the continents. No small feat for a wayward space rock.
Professor Chris Kirkland, also a co-lead on the study, pointed out another possible consequence: life itself. Impact craters create hydrothermal environments—think boiling hot water pools, rich in minerals, perfect for primitive microbes trying to get a foothold. Some of the earliest signs of life on Earth? They came from areas just like this.
If more ancient craters like this one exist (and let’s be real, they probably do), they could explain a lot about how Earth transitioned from a chaotic, molten wasteland to a planet teeming with life. The Moon, riddled with craters, tells us that massive impacts were common in the early solar system. Earth wasn’t spared—it’s just that erosion, tectonics, and time have erased most of the evidence.
But not this one. This crater, hiding in the cracked and ancient rocks of Pilbara, endured. And now that we’ve found it, who knows what else is lurking beneath the surface, waiting to tell its story?
Five Fast Facts
- Marble Bar, near the crater site, holds the world record for the most consecutive days above 37.8°C (100°F)—160 days straight.
- Shatter cones, the key evidence of this impact, have also been found at nuclear test sites, proving their link to extreme pressure events.
- The Pilbara region contains some of the oldest rocks on Earth, dating back over 3.6 billion years.
- Cratons, the stable landmasses possibly shaped by this impact, are the only places where diamonds form naturally.
- The Moon’s largest impact basin, the South Pole–Aitken Basin, is over 2,500 km wide—25 times the estimated size of this crater.