A Meteor Hit Oklahoma 100 Million Years Later than Scientists Thought

Oklahoma’s Ames crater was linked to a 470-million-year-old event; zircon dating suggests it may be nearly 370 million years old, near an extinction

Research indicates that the Ames impact structure may have formed during the Late Devonian period. This finding challenges earlier beliefs connecting the structure to the Ordovician Meteor Event. Scientists utilized radioisotopic dating on zircon and plagioclase from impacted granite for their study. The zircon analysis revealed a maximum age of nearly 370 million years. These results may link the impact event to significant extinction events of…

A meteor hit Oklahoma 100 million years later than scientists thought

A meteor crater buried beneath Oklahoma has turned out to be nearly 100 million years younger than scientists thought. Zircon crystals show the Ames impact occurred about 370 million years ago, meaning it was not part of the mysterious Ordovician bombardment once linked to a possible ring of debris around Earth. Instead, the impact coincided closely with a major mass extinction that devastated marine life.

Scientists Just Discovered This Oklahoma Meteor Crater Is 100 Million Years Younger Than We Thought

Image Courtesy: Shutterstock Scientists have discovered that a meteorite struck what is now Oklahoma roughly 370 million years ago, nearly 100 million years later than previously believed. The revised timeline changes the crater’s place in Earth’s impact history and could help researchers better understand the causes of ancient mass extinctions. The Ames impact structure lies […]