The crater was not created by a meteorite hitting Earth as believed

Years after discovering what was considered The oldest pit Created before Meteor on the planetA new study concluded that it was not the celestial body that caused the tremendous relief on Earth as previously thought, but it is As a result of normal geological processes.

While fieldwork on the Archean Maniitsoq structure in Greenland, an international team of scientists led by Chris Jakimchuk from University of Waterloo I found that the characteristics of this region are incompatible with it Impact hole. In 2012, a different team named him The remains of a 3 billion-year-old meteor crater.

“The zircons in the rock are like little time capsules,” said Yakimchuk, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Waterloo. “They preserve the old damage caused by the shock waves that were caused by a meteor collision. We did not find such damage in them,” he added.

Also, there are many places where rocks have melted and recrystallized deep within the earth. This process, called metamorphosis, occurs almost instantly if it occurs from collision. The team led by Waterloo found that this happened 40 million years later than the previous group had suggested.

The characteristics of the crater did not match the meteorite

“We went there to explore the area for potential mineral exploration,” said Yakimchuk. “By carefully examining the area and data collected since 2012, we came to the conclusion that the features are inconsistent with the meteor impact.” Declaration.

“While we were disappointed that we weren’t working on a structure that was the result of a meteor striking the planet 3 billion years ago, science is about developing knowledge through discovery and our understanding of ancient history. Earth continues to evolve. The results provide scientific data for resource companies in Greenland and prospectors to find resources. New metal. “

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