Giant Crater Found: Tied to Worst Mass Extinction Ever

Giant Crater Found: Tied to Worst Mass Extinction Ever

An apparent crater as big as Ohio has been found in Antarctica. Scientists think it was carved by a space rock that caused the greatest mass extinction on Earth, 250 million years ago.

The crater, buried beneath a half-mile of ice and discovered by some serious airborne and satellite sleuthing, is more than twice as big as the one involved in the demise of the dinosaurs.

The crater's location, in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia, suggests it might have instigated the breakup of the so-called Gondwana supercontinent, which pushed Australia northward, the researchers said.

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What a great discovery!

[edit on 1-6-2006 by loam]

Wow. That's pretty amazing. I don't know why it took so long to find something that big though.

Nice find.

I have always thought IF there ever was any sort of human life in Earths past, an event such as this one would have wiped out all traces of it.


Pie

That is a great find. It'll be interesting to see the findings once some samples are secured from the site, could confirm some controversial history. When one looks at the globe particularly the Western Hemisphere one wonders how many times this planet has been clobbered on a grand scale. Sure there are some pretty large impacts that are well known... Meteor crater comes to mind, sometimes I look at the Caribbean and Hudson's Bay and wonder if big impacts helped shape those too.

Thanx,

Victor K.

[edit on 2-6-2006 by V Kaminski]

Meteor crater was caused by a tiny impact in comparison to this. Meteor crater would have caused local destruction but this caused the Permian triassic Mass extinction event.

The reason why it took so long to find is probably because it is so big, at first it probably looked like a plain, or the rim would just have looked like mountains. It has also had 250 million years of erosion as well.

Just as a side note, there is a crater caused by an asteroid in Chesapeake Bay.

loam,

Good post. I really enjoy this kind of info and I missed it so, thanks. It occurs to me that since the size of the crater in Antarctica is so large and has been likened to a bump on the head (for earth) it must have been a bump serious enough to cause a concussion to our earth.

The symtoms of concussion are well known. My concern is with the results of such damage. My question is...can a major blow to earth such as the Permian-Triassic extinction event possibly be the delayed cause of the modern Republican Party. When we witness defective lifeforms such as Newt Gingrich, Strom Thurmond, Trent Lott, Jesse Helms, Tom DeLay, and that bogus ersatz doctor Frist it occurs to me that the damage to earth was greater then killing over 80 percent of all life on earth. The event left the potential for abborant life forms and this earth concussion, rather than profound ignorance and contempt for others, might be the reason for these Republicans.

I don't know; it is just a thought. If such an explanation is possible all future theft of the American people's assets, carnage, amazing stupidity and unfathomable screwups by Republicans can be flipped off by the response...do you not know about the crater in Ante Architer, uh AndArtictur, uh, Antarcitcor, uh, that cold place down south.

Jest a doin me part ta support our leeders at least until we can get thier places ready in Leavenworth.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

huh? at sayswho lol

the crater is very intresting, they say this may have been the 'big' one that killed the dinosaurs off. be good when they get all the results back from the samples taken. you would have thought something this size would have been found sooner lol

great find yet again loam

Impacts that occur 100 million year ago or more are extremely hard to find even large ones. The earth has a tendency to erase impacts over time. Wether this one is tied to this extinction or not will be debated for many years to come by the scientific community. Nevertheless, an exremely important find.

One of many finds yet to be uncovered in Antarctica in my estimation.

Great find with the dating of about 250 million years old this could very well be the smoking gun of the Permian-Triassic extinction which until now we didnt really have much to go on for the real cause.

300 miles is huge too that dwarfs the Chicxulub crater which was thought to have killed off most of the dinosuars.