- By Lakshay Raja
- Sat, 05 Sep 2020 05:00 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran Trending Desk: Geologists have discovered a massive 100 million old crater in Western Australia which could be five times bigger than the famous Wolfe Creek crater in the Kimberley region. The creator was unexpectedly found near the Goldfields mining town of Ora Banda, when a company was drilling in the region for gold, Guardian reported.
“This discovery was made in an area where the landscape is very flat. You wouldn’t know it was there because the crater has been filled in over geological time,” geologist and geophysicist, Dr Jayson Meyers said.
The crater is estimated to have a diameter of about five kilometres, making it one of the largest meteorite craters in the world. It is not visible from the surface and was mapped out using modern techniques, such as gravity surveying.
“There’s probably quite a few more out there,” Meyers said. “We’ve probably been hit by more asteroids than we thought. If we start recognising more of these, then the landscape begins changing, and we have to ask ourselves what’s the frequency and why are they happening?”
Meyers believe that in order to make an impact of this big a size, the asteroid would have been approximately 100 to 200 metres in diameter. The crater was discovered on land owned by Australia’s third-largest gold-mining company, Evolution Mining.
Earth's active surface processes quickly destroy the impact record of an asteroid, still, around 190 of terrestrial impact craters have been identified.
According to Dr Meyers, the recent discovery can help various scientists in predicting the next meteorite strike on Earth.