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Crater Discovered in the US Three Times the Size of the Grand Canyon

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Imagine stumbling upon a crater so massive it’s three times the size of the Grand Canyon. Sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, right? But this isn’t fiction—this colossal crater is real and right here in the United States. While many of us go about our daily lives, oblivious to the ancient impacts lying beneath our feet, this recent discovery is turning heads and rewriting the history books.

The Impact That Shaped History

Wikipedia

Around 35 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the ocean near the East Coast of North America, creating a 25-mile-wide crater beneath what is now Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Maryland. This collision sparked fires, earthquakes, molten glass droplets, a powerful air blast, and a massive tsunami. Known as the “Chesapeake Bay impact crater,” it remained a secret until the early 1990s when scientific drilling uncovered its presence. 

The Ejecta Layer’s Vast Reach

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The asteroid’s crash scattered debris far and wide, which created an ejecta layer filled with tektites (natural glass formed from meteorite impacts) and shocked zircon crystals. This layer, known as the “North American tektite strewn field,” covers about 4 million square miles—roughly ten times the size of Texas. Some of this material landed on land, while the rest rapidly cooled upon hitting seawater and sank to the ocean floor.

Groundbreaking Research Efforts

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A group of scientists, including Marc Biren from ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, Jo-Anne Wartho, Matthijs Van Soest, and Kip Hodges, ventured to the Ocean Drilling Project site 1073 to gather samples. They used the “uranium-thorium-helium technique” to date these samples for the first time. Their groundbreaking findings, published in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, emphasize the importance of precise dating in understanding Earth’s history.

Focus on Zircon Crystals

Rob Lavinsky/Wikipedia

The team’s research focused on zircon crystals, which record evidence of shock metamorphism from impact events’ high pressures and temperatures. These crystals, as thin as a human hair, were central to their study. Co-author Jo-Anne Wartho noted the significance of zircon crystals found in oceanic sediments from a borehole nearly 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of the crash site.

Implications and Broader Significance

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Through their collaborative efforts, Biren and his colleagues demonstrated the effectiveness of the uranium-thorium-helium dating method for small, shocked material samples from collision sites. This research sheds light on the Chesapeake Bay impact event and highlights the broader importance of impact events in shaping Earth’s geological and biological history.  

Written by Peterson Sorenson

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