[Rockhounds] Largest asteroid hit on Earth lies under Australian continent

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Experts believe the Australian continent is hiding the largest meteor
crater on Earth, revealing a hit at least twice as powerful as the one that
wiped out the dinosaurs.

Recent research
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040195122002487>
published
in the journal Technophysics points to the world’s largest known impact
structure, buried deep in the earth in southern NSW.

Australia is home to at least 38 confirmed and 43 potential impact
structures after it was pummelled by asteroids in Earth’s early history,
but the Deniliquin structure is by far the biggest.

The structure, which is yet to be further tested by drilling, spans up to
520 kilometres in diameter, making it three times as wide as Mexico’s
Chicxulub crater, which was left by the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Researchers believe the impact that caused the structure may have occurred
during the Late Ordovician extinction event, which wiped out 85 per cent of
life on Earth between 445.2 and 443.8 million years ago.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/largest-asteroid-hit-on-earth-lies-under-australian-continent/news-story/75f6d162b4e4a5f6a2ce637097048c87