One of the biggest meteorite crashes in Earth's history flung debris across 3 continents 800,000 years ago. Scientists finally found the crater.
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About 800,000 years ago, a monster space rock struck the Earth hard and fast. The impact of the 1.2 mile-wide meteorite flung debris across 10% of the planet's surface.
Scientists have found this ancient debris, mostly in the form of glass blobs known as tektites, in Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. But until now, researchers had never found the site where the meteorite hit.
When a meteorite hits, it super-heats rocks at the point of impact and catapults them into the sky. These liquefied rocks then cool into tektites. By examining where tektites are strewn, scientists can trace the origin of the meteorite that created them
In the case of this strike, the tektites told scientists that a massive meteorite struck Earth's surface 800,000 years ago, somewhere between the three continents where they found the glass bits.
The greatest density of tektites have been found in Indochina - the peninsula that consists of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam - making that the most logical place to search for the crater.
Then, in a region of southern Laos called the Bolaven Plateau, the researchers found lava flows that fit the age bracket: They were between 51,000 and 780,000 years old.
The final piece of evidence sat 12 miles away from the summit of the volcanic field: A patch of sandstone looked to be battered with debris.
The sandstone outcrop contained fractured quartz grains, which the geologists think were proximal ejecta from the meteorite - the term for material that gets pushed out from an impact site into nearby rocks.
Scientists will need to drill deeper into the lava bed - likely a few hundred meters down - to find the evidence they need to put this geological mystery to rest.
