A new study has revealed the strongest evidence to date that massive meteor impacts played a role in the emergence of continents on Earth. According to this research, the meteorite impacts that separated the continents took place thousands of years ago.
Understanding the Earth’s past is of great importance for making accurate predictions about its future. Some of the studies conducted for this purpose also aim to reveal through what processes our planet has become what we know today.
It is known that there was a single continent called Pangea on our planet in the past. Later, different theories have been put forward about how this continent fell apart. The most important evidence supporting the claim that the continents were Decoupled by a meteor impact, which is among these theories, was announced recently.
What makes up the continents may be giant meteorites
Dr from the Curtin School of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Tim Johnson explained that they examined small zircon crystals inside stones found in the Pilbara Craton area in Western Australia and found traces of a massive meteor impact. This region is known as one of the places where the original crust of the Earth is best preserved.
A scientist who has been studying the zircon isotopes found in this region explained that they have discovered that the oxygen atoms contained in the structure are connected in the opposite way. This means that the rocks are exposed to extreme heat in such a way that they start at the surface and go deeper. This can only be explained by a large meteor impact.
Dr. Johnson says that it is of great importance to be able to understand how the structure of our planet was formed and its ongoing change. According to the researcher, the land fragments contain almost all people, a large part of the living mass and almost all minerals.
Dr. Tim Johnson’s research was published in the journal Nature on August 10, 2022.
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