“It is possible the asteroid impact dates back to the late Devonian period 360 million years ago, a time of major mass extinction,” says Dr Andrew Glikson of the Australian National University’s School of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Last year Glikson announced the discovery of a crater 84 km in diameter at Talundilly in south-western Queensland. The crater is thought to be 125 million years old, coinciding with a period of major volcanic activity in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Dr Tonguc Uysal of the University of Queensland, who has been studying potential geothermal resources nearby in the Cooper Basin, became aware of the work and alerted Glikson to the presence of shocked quartz in drills 4 km deep at some locations.
Shocked quartz is considered a tell-tale sign of an asteroid impact as it requires forces stronger than those experienced in earthquakes or volcanoes. Glikson confirmed its presence in the East Warburton Basin over a 30,000 km2 area – up to 200 km across – suggesting that the source was an asteroid 10–20 km in diameter.
Glikson says the Cooper Basin has been drilled so many times it is “like Swiss cheese”, providing extensive samples to study. Deep seismic anomalies provide further support for the theory through evidence of uplift that is now buried under millions of years of strata.
Glikson says that a...
