Researchers in Western Australia report new dating evidence identifying a roughly 3-billion-year-old meteorite impact crater in the Pilbara region as Earth’s oldest known impact structure. Multiple outlets describe work by Curtin University scientists using advanced dating methods on ancient rocks exposed in the Pilbara. The study focuses on material preserved from the Archean eon, when Earth’s tectonic activity and early life were developing. The authors characterize the results as “smoking gun” evidence, indicating the crater’s age with greater confidence than earlier estimates.
The reporting also notes that the Pilbara site has been proposed previously as the oldest confirmed impact, but the new analysis strengthens that conclusion by independently corroborating the crater’s age. The outlets collectively state that the impact is dated to more than 3 billion years ago, and that the age places it among the earliest large impact events preserved on the planet. The findings come from interpreting geologic records at the crater site rather than from direct meteorite samples.
