Scientists find a massive underwater crater that is 3 times larger than the Grand Canyon -the more light side of the news

About 35 million years ago, an asteroid hit the ocean off the east coast of North America, leaving behind a massive impact crater that is now buried under Chesapiq Bay.

The collision unleashed devastating effects, including widespread fires, powerful earthquakes, melted glass droplets, a huge air explosion and tsunami that converted the landscape of now Virginia and Maryland.

The impact created a crater with a diameter of approximately 25 miles, which has since been completely concealed by the sludge. Although hidden, its existence was confirmed in the early 1990s through scientific drilling.

It remains the largest known crater of the impact in the United States and ranks as 15 on the Earth, emphasizing the enormous power of ancient asteroid stroke.

Beyond the crater itself, the asteroid effect discarded a huge amount of debris into the atmosphere. This material included tectites – a natural glass formed by meteorite effects – and zircon crystals that suffered intense shock from the explosion. These shocked minerals serve as key geological evidence of the intensity of the impact.

The scattered debris formed what is now called the “North American Tectitic Field”, an expansive ejection layer that extends to approximately 4 million square miles – about ten times more than Texas. Some of the debris fell on land as much of it cooled quickly on contact with seawater and settled on the ocean bottom, keeping the event recording.

In order to better understand the effects and time of impact, a team of researchers, including Mark Beren of the Earth School and the Space Study of the State University of Arizona, analyzes samples to drill the site of the ocean’s drilling project. Their work is for their work. Aim to improve the date of the disposal of materials to dispel the use of sophisticated techniques.

The team, which also included Joe-Anne Worto, Matiis Van Soeth and Kip Hodges, applied the dating technique with Uran-chilli in the samples. This method allowed them to establish a more precise timeline when the materials are discarded and how they are cooled and arranged.

“Determining accurate and accurate impact ages is vital in our understanding of the history of Earth,” Beren said. “In recent years, for example, the scientific community has realized the importance of impact on Earth’s geological and biological history on Earth, including the 65 million annual event for the mass disappearance of a dinosaur associated with the great Chicxulub impact crater.”

The team focuses on zircon crystals, which retain evidence of shocking metamorphism caused by high pressure and temperatures of impact events. These crystals, around the thickness of human hair, were central to their examination.

“The key to our investigation were Zircon-or more precisely: zirconium silicacal-crystals found in the ocean sediment of drilling, almost 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast from the site of the Atlantic,” says the Auto, who starts the studies As a laboratory manager at the ASU mass spectrometry laboratory.

For this study, Biren collaborated with Wartho (now in Geomar Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel), Van Soest and Hodges for the preparation of analysis samples and the date of zircon crystals using the Uran-Torium-chide method. Biren identifies and processes shocked zircon fragments for images and chemical analysis with an electronic microcrob.

“This study adds an instrument for researchers that date the structures of ground impact,” Beren said. “Our results demonstrate the viability of the Dating Method with Uran-Corium for use in similar cases where the shocked materials are thrown away from the crater and then allow to cool down quickly, especially when the size of the sample is small . “

The study not only contributes to the understanding of the Chesapik Bay event, but also emphasizes the broader importance of the events of the impact on the geological and biological history of the Earth.

The ability to accurately dating such events improves our understanding of their effects on the development of the planet and the history of life.

The five largest craters of the effects of the earth in diameter are:

Vredefort Crater (South Africa) – ~ 250–300 km

Chicxulub crater (Mexico) – ~ 180 km

Sodbury pool (Canada) – ~ 130 km

Popigai Crater (Russia) – ~ 90 km

Manicuagan Crater (Canada) – ~ 85 km

These influence craters provide critical evidence of past asteroid or comet clashes and their impact on the geological and biological history of the Earth.