[Rockhounds] Astounding New 3D Images Reveal Ancient Asteroid Crater Hidden Beneath Atlantic Ocean

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

*Detailed images of the 66-million-year-old Nadir Crater offer new insights
into catastrophic asteroid impacts, showing extensive damage and geological
changes including a huge tsunami.*

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University have released new images of the Nadir
Crater, a 9 km (~5.5 mile) wide asteroid impact crater located 300m (~1000
feet) under the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. These new images confirm the
Nadir Crater was caused by an asteroid smashing into Earth at the end of
the Cretaceous period approximately 66 million years ago. This is the same
age as the 200 km (~125 mile) wide, Chicxulub impact crater in Mexico,
which is associated with the extinction of dinosaurs.

The images have helped the researchers determine what happened in the
minutes following impact: the formation of an initial bowl-shaped crater,
rocks turned to a fluid-like state and flowing upwards to the crater floor,
the creation of a damage zone covering thousands of square kilometers
beyond the crater, and an 800-meter-plus (2,600-foot-plus) high tsunami
that would have traveled across the Atlantic ocean.

The findings are reported in *Nature Communications Earth & Environment*.

https://scitechdaily.com/astounding-new-3d-images-reveal-ancient-asteroid-crater-hidden-beneath-atlantic-ocean/