100 million-year-old meteorite crater found in Western Australia

A 100 million-year-old meteorite crater has been found in Western Australia. This crater was found while a mining company was drilling for gold.

The diameter of the crater is 5 km. The experts found the crater using electromagnetic surveys. The crater was located near the Goldfields mining town of Ora Banda, north-west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

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This crater is predicted to be five times bigger than the famous Wolfe Creek crater in the Kimberley. The 5 km-wide crater is considered to be one of the largest meteorite craters in the world.

The geologist and geophysicist, Dr Jayson Meyers, said the find was significant and unexpected.

“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,” he said.

According to Meyers, their successful find will lead to more discoveries.

“There’s probably quite a few more out there,” he 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 said more discoveries could help scientists better predict when a meteorite may next strike Earth.

“If we can understand more of the geological history, we can predict when the next event will happen, or see when another rogue asteroid could hit us.”

Earlier this year, scientists discovered the world’s oldest meteorite crater in Western Australia’s mid-west. The crater was called Yarrabubba crater which is believed to be 2.23 billion years old.