. 24/7 Space News .
IRON AND ICE
Giant impact crater in Greenland occurred a few million years after dinosaurs went extinct
by Staff Writers
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Mar 10, 2022

Maps showing the location of the Hiawatha impact crater in northwest Greenland (left) and the shape of Earth's surface beneath the ice, with the crater clearly visible (right).

Danish and Swedish researchers have dated the enormous Hiawatha impact crater, a 31 km-wide meteorite crater buried under a kilometer of Greenlandic ice. The dating ends speculation that the meteorite impacted after the appearance of humans and opens up a new understanding of Earth's evolution in the post-dinosaur era.

Ever since 2015, when researchers at the University of Copenhagen's GLOBE Institute discovered the Hiawatha impact crater in northwestern Greenland, uncertainty about the crater's age has been the subject of considerable speculation. Could the asteroid have slammed into Earth as recently as 13,000 years ago, when humans had long populated the planet? Could its impact have catalyzed a nearly 1,000-year period of global cooling known as the Younger Dryas?

New analyses performed on grains of sand and rocks from the Hiawatha impact crater by the Natural History Museum of Denmark and the GLOBE Institute at the University of Copenhagen, as well as the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, demonstrate that the answer is no. The Hiawatha impact crater is far older. In fact, a new study published in the journal Science Advances today reports its age to be 58 million years old.

"Dating the crater has been a particularly tough nut to crack, so it's very satisfying that two laboratories in Denmark and Sweden, using different dating methods arrived at the same conclusion. As such, I'm convinced that we've determined the crater's actual age, which is much older than many people once thought," says Michael Storey of the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

"Determining the new age of the crater surprised us all. In the future, it will help us investigate the impact's possible effect on climate during an important epoch of Earth's history" says Dr. Gavin Kenny of the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

As one of those who helped discover the Hiawatha impact crater in 2015, Professor Nicolaj Krog Larsen of the GLOBE Institute at the University of Copenhagen is pleased that the crater's exact age is now confirmed.

"It is fantastic to now know its age. We've been working hard to find a way to date the crater since we discovered it seven years ago. Since then, we have been on several field trips to the area to collect samples associated with the Hiawatha impact," says Professor Larsen

Age revealed by laser beams and grains of sand
No kilometer-thick ice sheet draped Northwest Greenland when the Hiawatha asteroid rammed into Earth surface releasing several million times more energy than an atomic bomb. At the time, the Arctic was covered with a temperate rainforest and wildlife abounded - and temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius were the norm. Eight million years earlier, an even larger asteroid struck present-day Mexico, causing the extinction of Earth's dinosaurs.

The asteroid smashed into Earth, leaving a thirty-one-kilometer-wide, one-kilometer-deep crater. The crater is big enough to contain the entire city of Washington D.C. Today, the crater lies beneath the Hiawatha Glacier in Northwest Greenland. Rivers flowing from the glacier supplied the researchers with sand and rocks that were superheated by the impact 58 million years ago.

The sand was analyzed at the Natural History Museum of Denmark by heating the grains with a laser until they released argon gas, whereas the rock samples were analyzed at the Swedish Museum of Natural History using uranium-lead dating of the mineral zircon.

Clear evidence that the Hiawatha impact disrupted global climate is still lacking. However, the crater's dating allows the international research team working on the crater to begin testing various hypotheses to better understand what its impact was on both the local and global climate.

Research Report: "A Late Paleocene age for Greenland's Hiawatha impact structure"


Related Links
University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology


Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly


paypal only
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal


IRON AND ICE
The state of planetary defense in the 2020s
Montgomery AL (The Conversation) Mar 03, 2022
The Earth exists in a dangerous environment. Cosmic bodies, like asteroids and comets, are constantly zooming through space and often crash into our planet. Most of these are too small to pose a threat, but some can be cause for concern. As a scholar who studies space and international security, it is my job to ask what the likelihood of an object crashing into the planet really is - and whether governments are spending enough money to prevent such an event. To find the answers to these ques ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

IRON AND ICE
Space Station to host 'self-healing' quantum communications tech demo

'TechWorks' brings dreams of Jordan inventors to life

How to reach a tumbling target in space

NASA exploring ways to keep ISS afloat without Russian help: official

IRON AND ICE
Virgin Orbit to launch first Welsh satellite from UK Spaceport Summer 2022

SpaceX launches 48 Starlink satellites amid Ukraine crisis

Russia stops deliveries of rocket engines to US, Roscosmos Head Says

First Platforms are Retracted Ahead of Artemis I First Rollout to Launch Pad

IRON AND ICE
Moon and Mars superoxides for oxygen farming

A River Runs Through It: Onward to the Delta

NASA's Angie Jackman works to develop rocket that will bring Mars samples to Earth

Challenges await sample-return expedition to Mars

IRON AND ICE
China launches seven new satellites

Technology demonstration satellite to be launched soon

China's space station to host 6 astronauts by end of 2022

Tiangong scheduled for completion this year

IRON AND ICE
Sidus Space completes LizzieSat Preliminary Design Review

AST SpaceMobile announces launch deal with SpaceX

Slingshot Aerospace raises $25M in Series A-1 Funding Round

Sidus Space teams with Aitech Systems to support LizzieSat constellation

IRON AND ICE
NeoPhotonics offers ultra-narrow linewidth laser for LEO satellites

Using artificial intelligence to find anomalies hiding in massive datasets

Using NB-IoT connectivity to boost hybrid terrestrial-satellite networks

Why people rush for iodine tablets over nuclear, cancer risk

IRON AND ICE
Imagining an Earthly neighbor

Astronomers discover largest molecule yet in a planet-forming disc

The start of the birth of planets in a binary star system observed

Microscopic view on asteroid collisions could help us understand planet formation

IRON AND ICE
NASA begins assembly of Europa Clipper

NASA starts building Europa Clipper to investigate icy, ocean moon of Jupiter

New Horizons team puts names to the places on Arrokoth

NASA Telescope Spots Highest-Energy Light Ever Detected From Jupiter









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.