All Articles Tagged As: impact craters

CSI-style investigation of meteorite hits on Earth (10/22/2011)

Volcanologists from the Universities of Leicester and Durham have forensically reconstructed the impact of a meteorite on Earth and how debris was hurled from the crater to devastate the surrounding region. ...> Full Article

The end of planet formation, as told by trace elements from the mantles of Earth, the moon and Mars (12/13/2010)

New research reveals that the abundance of so-called highly siderophile, or metal-loving, elements like gold and platinum found in the mantles of Earth, the moon and Mars were delivered by massive impactors during the final phase of planet formation over 4.5 billion years ago. The predicted sizes of the projectiles, which hit within tens of millions of years of the giant impact that produced our moon, are consistent with current planet formation models. ...> Full Article

Scientists conclude asteroid ended the age of dinosaurs (5/27/2010)

University of Alaska, Fairbanks, scientist Michael Whalen is part of a team of distinguished scientists who recently compiled a wide swath of evidence striking a definitive blow in the ongoing battle over what killed the dinosaurs. ...> Full Article

Experts reaffirm asteroid impact caused mass extinction (3/7/2010)

Responding to challenges to the hypothesis that an asteroid impact caused a mass extinction on Earth 65 million years, a panel of 41 scientists re-analyzed data and provided new evidence, concluding that an impact in Mexico was indeed the cause of the mass extinction. ...> Full Article

Absence of evidence for a meteorite impact event 13,000 years ago (12/9/2009)

An international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have found no evidence supporting an extraterrestrial impact event at the onset of the Younger Dryas approx. 13,000 years ago. ...> Full Article

Geologists point to outer space as source of the Earth's mineral riches (10/21/2009)

According to a new study by geologists at the University of Toronto and the University of Maryland, the wealth of some minerals that lie in the rock beneath the Earth's surface may be extraterrestrial in origin. ...> Full Article

Giant impact near India - not Mexico - may have doomed dinosaurs (10/17/2009)

A mysterious basin off the coast of India could be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater the world has ever seen. And if a new study is right, it may have been responsible for killing the dinosaurs off 65 million years ago. ...> Full Article

What hit Earth in 1908 with the force of 3,000 atomic bombs? (10/16/2009)

There have been numerous theories proposed about what struck the taiga in central Siberia, causing millions of trees to topple over and many still-standing trees to lose all their branches. Many expeditions have looked for traces of what hit Earth and have not found much. In The Tunguska Mystery by Vladimir Rubtsov, the efforts put forth by generations of Russian scientists, technicians, and others are documented. What did they find? ...> Full Article

Tiny diamonds on Santa Rosa Island give evidence of cosmic impact (7/25/2009)

Nanosized diamonds found just a few meters below the surface of Santa Rosa Island off the coast of Santa Barbara provide strong evidence of a cosmic impact event in North America approximately 12,900 years ago, according to a new study by scientists. Their hypothesis holds that fragments of a comet struck across North America at that time. ...> Full Article

Meteorite bombardment may have made Earth more habitable, says study (6/2/2009)

Large bombardments of meteorites approximately four billion years ago could have helped to make the early Earth and Mars more habitable for life by modifying their atmospheres, suggests the results of a paper published today in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochima Acta. ...> Full Article

Asteroid attack 3.9 billion years ago may have enhanced early life on Earth (5/21/2009)

The bombardment of Earth nearly 4 billion years ago by asteroids as large as Kansas would not have had the firepower to extinguish potential early life on the planet and may even have given it a boost, says a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. ...> Full Article

New blow for dinosaur-killing asteroid theory (4/28/2009)

Impact didn't lead to mass extinction 65 million years ago, geologists find ...> Full Article

Comet impact theory disproved (1/28/2009)

New data, published today, disproves the recent theory that a large comet exploded over North America 12,900 years ago, causing a shock wave that traveled across North America at hundreds of kilometers per hour and triggering continent-wide wildfires. Dr. Sandy Harrison from the University of Bristol and colleagues tested the theory by examining charcoal and pollen records to assess how fire regimes in North America changed between 15 and 10,000 years ago, a time of large and rapid climate changes. ...> Full Article

6 North American sites hold 12,900-year-old nanodiamond-rich soil (1/2/2009)

Discoveries consistent with theory of Clovis-age disruption by cosmic event, says 9-member team ...> Full Article

Meteorite hits on Earth: There may be a recount (12/1/2008)

A new tool to reveal undiscovered meteroite craters ...> Full Article

Extinction by asteroid a rarity (10/8/2008)

Evidence suggests that 'sick Earth' extinctions more likely ...> Full Article

65-million-year-old asteroid impact triggered a global hail of carbon beads (5/6/2008)

The asteroid presumed to have wiped out the dinosaurs struck the Earth with such force that carbon deep in the Earth's crust liquefied, rocketed skyward, and formed tiny airborne beads that blanketed the planet ...> Full Article

Geologists Discover New Way of Estimating Size and Frequency of Meteorite Impacts (4/13/2008)

Meteorite linked to mass extinction 65 million years ago was four to six kilometers in diameter ...> Full Article

Britain's biggest meteorite impact found (3/28/2008)

Evidence of the biggest meteorite ever to hit the British Isles has been found by scientists ...> Full Article