A city-sized crater hidden beneath a massive ice sheet for centuries has been found in northwest Greenland.
The massive hole is more than 19 miles wide and 300 metres deep, and is believed to have been formed when an iron meteorite smashed into the Earth around three million years ago. If confirmed, it would be the first impact crater ever found under ice, says National Geographic.
The potentially landmark discovery was made by an international team led by researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural Museum of Denmark. The researchers - who have published a paper about their find in journal Science Advances - chanced upon the crater while examining radar images used to map the topography beneath Greenland’s ice sheets.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
After noticing a circular impact under what is known as the Hiawatha Glacier, the researchers have spent the past three years working out exactly what it might be. They have concluded that it is one of the 25 largest impact craters on Earth, according to a report from Nasa, which was involved in the research.
“The crater is exceptionally well-preserved and that is surprising because glacier ice is an incredibly efficient erosive agent that would have quickly remove traces of the impact,” said study author Professor Kurt Kjaer.
In order to confirm the crater’s age, the scientists will have to drill through more than half a mile of ice in order to collect rocks for laboratory dating.
“We would endeavour to do this - it would certainly be the best way to get the ‘dead fish on the table’, so to speak,” Kjaer told the BBC.
Dating the crater’s age would allow scientists to find out if the meteor impact occurred during the last Ice Age, which ended approximately 11,700 years ago.
If so, it could reignite interest in the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, a theory which suggests that an intense period of cooling at the end of that Ice Age was precipitated by an impact from one or more large comets in North America, says Science magazine.
That suggests the impact of the crater might have impacted the history of the planet.
You can watch Nasa’s video showing how the crater discovery came together here:
-
AI workslop is muddying the American workplaceThe explainer Using AI may create more work for others
-
Japan poised to get first woman prime ministerSpeed Read The ruling Liberal Democratic Party elected former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi
-
The 5 best mob movies of all timeThe Week Recommends If you don’t like a good gangster flick, just fuhgeddaboudit
-
China vows first emissions cut, sidelining USSpeed Read The US, the world’s No. 2 emitter, did not attend the New York summit
-
How clean-air efforts may have exacerbated global warmingUnder the Radar Air pollution artificially cooled the Earth, ‘masking’ extent of temperature increase
-
Earth's seasons are out of whackUnder the radar The seasons' unfixed nature in different regions of the planet may have impacted biodiversity and evolution
-
When does autumn begin?The Explainer The UK is experiencing a 'false autumn', as climate change shifts seasonal weather patterns
-
How 'freakosystems' are becoming the normThe explainer Ecosystems are changing permanently
-
Cloudbursts: what are the 'rain bombs' hitting India and Pakistan?The Explainer The sudden and intense weather event is almost impossible to forecast and often leads to deadly flash-flooding and landslides
-
What do heatwaves mean for Scandinavia?Under the Radar A record-breaking run of sweltering days and tropical nights is changing the way people – and animals – live in typically cool Nordic countries
-
Blue whales have gone silent and it's posing troubling questionsUnder the radar Warming oceans are the answer
