Australia’s Yarrabubba crater is regarded as the world’s oldest preserved impact structure, but until now its exact age was uncertain. Now, using the geological dating researchers have revealed that the crater was formed 2.229 billion years ago – a time that matched with Earth’s recovery from an ice age. To find the accurate details researchers collected samples of minerals called zircon and monazite from the crater. They then analyzed the amount of uranium and lead in the minerals found in those samples to calculate the exact age of the crater. Although Yarrabubba crater is considered as the oldest dated impact site, there may have been many more asteroid-caused injuries to Earth’s surface that were since healed with the transformation of rocks.
