Scientists Identify 11-Million-Year-Old Tektites, Pointing to Unfound Impact Crater North of Australia
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 12
Scientists Identify 11-Million-Year-Old Tektites, Pointing to Unfound Impact Crater North of Australia
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 12
Summary
Six unusual glass specimens in the South Australian Museum have been identified as a separate 11-million-year-old tektite group—ananguites—rather than part of the much younger Australasian field.
Geochemistry, dating and the roughly 900-kilometre elliptical strewn field suggest the glass was blasted from an asteroid impact into volcanic-arc rocks somewhere north of Australia.
The source crater has not been located, and the study infers its existence from the tektites' age, chemistry and distribution rather than from a confirmed impact structure.
Researchers say tectonic activity, volcanism, erosion and submergence in arc regions such as Indonesia, Papua New Guinea or the Philippines could have obscured or destroyed the crater.
If confirmed, the finding adds a previously unrecognized Miocene impact event to Earth's incomplete crater record and shows how tektites can preserve evidence after craters vanish.