Tony Prave
FADA STAC member, Scotland
A meteorite that reached Northwest of Scotland about a thousand years ago may have collided 200 million years later than initially believed.
A new investigation from the University of Curtin, Australia, analyzed small crystals left by the impact And found that they were recent than previously thought.
The data brought by the study, which was this week in the Geologycan change what science knows about the rich geological history of Scotland and the general understanding of How not marine life has evolved on the earth.
Along the northwest coast of Scotland there is a layer of rock known as Fairy Stac Member. This training is part of the Groupwhich consists of sediments of the mesoproterozoic era dating from about 1.6 million years to 1 million years ago.
Within this layer are clues to understand the old past of the earth, including An impact of meteorite that may have influenced life on our planet.
Impacts such as these shaped land in numerous forms, including the impact of what led to, or impacts that brought vital elements such as minerals and water to the earth.
This particular impact, which reached Scotland there almost billion yearsseems to have occurred much later than the researchers initially thought. This change in chronology can help investigators fill more gaps in the evolutionary puzzle of life.
For this study, researchers at Curtin University analyzed small crystals of zircon, which consider geological time capsules. From their analysis, they determined that the meteorite, which was initially thought to have reached Earth 1.2 billion years ago, In fact it hit our planet 990 million years ago.
“These microscopic crystals recorded the exact moment of the impact, with some becoming even an incredibly rare mineral raidwhich only forms under extreme pressures, ”says Chris Kirklandresearcher at the Earth Sciences and Planetary School of Curtin and first author of the study, in a press release published in.
“This provided undeniable evidence that the fairy stac deposit was caused by an impact of meteorite, ”adds the investigator.
To determine the age of crystals, the research team developed a new method for determining your atomic age.
“When a meteorite hits the earth, partially restarts atomic watchess within zircon crystals, and these ‘damn watches“It often cannot be dated, but we have developed a model to rebuild when the disturbance occurred, confirming the impact 990 million years ago,” Kirkland explains.
According to the study, this impact of meteorite occurred approximately to the the same time that the first eukaryotes of freshwater emerged. The eukaryotes, organisms with Cells with a membrane -bound corecurrently include most plant species, animals and fungi.
“The magazine dating suggests that these life forms in Scotland appeared in a time similar to a meteorite impact“Says Kirkland.“ This raises fascinating questions about whether large impacts may have influenced the environmental conditions of ways that affected primitive ecosystems. ”
Although researchers know that a meteorite caused the Fairy Stac member, continue to look for the place of impact. “Although the impact crater has not yet been found, this study has collected more clues that can finally reveal its location,” Kirkland said.
“Understanding when impacts of meteorites have helped us to explore their potential influence on the earth’s environment and the expansion of life Beyond the oceans, ”concludes the investigator.
