A powerful asteroid impact in northern Australia around 600 million years ago may have wiped out strange, soft-bodied sea creatures that inhabited the oceans during the Ediacaran Period. The collision left behind a long, shallow crater and created rare geological features called shatter cones.
Geologists believe that other larger asteroid impacts during this period may have triggered global changes in climate and ocean chemistry, possibly contributing to one of Earth’s earliest mass extinctions. The impact site, known as the Amelia Creek impact structure, is located near what is now the Davenport Range in northern Australia.
Analysis of satellite observations shows deformation in the regional rock strata extends about 10 kilometers north and south of the impact crater. The long, narrow shape of the crater suggests that the asteroid struck at an extremely oblique angle, unlike a steeper-angle impact that would have left a deeper, more symmetrical crater.
Other telltale clues of an impact event at Amelia Creek include fan-shaped fractures in quartzite rock strata, identified as shatter cones. These features are rare and only form when impact events send shock waves barreling through rock. The distribution of these shatter cones is consistent with a shallow-angle asteroid impact.
While the extent of damage caused by the impact remains uncertain, geologists suggest that asteroids striking at shallow angles cause less damage than those striking at steep angles. However, larger impacts during the Ediacaran Period may have had significant global consequences, including contributing to mass extinctions and changes in ocean chemistry and climate.
Source: https://scitechdaily.com/600-million-years-ago-an-asteroid-strike-shook-the-planet-and-its-effects-may-still-linger