Huge space rock rattled Earth 3 billion years ago

Asteroid left traces in South Africa’s Barberton greenstone belt

SPACE ROCKS The size of the asteroid that may have killed the dinosaurs (Chicxulub) and even Mount Everest look tiny compared to a space rock that may have slammed into Earth 3.26 billion years ago.

AGU

By Ashley Yeager

April 14, 2014 at 7:00 pm

An asteroid almost as wide as Rhode Island may have plowed into Earth 3.26 billion years ago, leaving a trace in South Africa’s Barberton greenstone belt. Hitting the planet at a speed of 20 kilometers per second, the 37- to 58-kilometer-wide space rock could have jolted Earth with at least the force of a magnitude 10.8 earthquake and set off tsunamis thousands of meters high, researchers report April 14 in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. It is the first time scientists have calculated the scale of the impact and its effects on Earth.