Over 43 million years ago, an asteroid had hit the Silverpit Crater, which is 700 meters below the southern North Sea. This ends a geological controversy that has been going on for decades. The crater is around 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire. It was first found in 2002, but there was still a lot of debate over where it came from, with hypotheses ranging from salt migration to volcanic collapse.
A team lead by Dr. Uisdean Nicholson of Heriot-Watt University employed enhanced seismic imaging, microscopic rock analysis, and numerical modeling to give the best evidence yet for an asteroid origin, according to a research in Nature Communications. Researchers also found uncommon “shocked” quartz and feldspar crystals in oil well samples. These crystals only form when there is a lot of shock pressure.
The asteroid, which was around 160 meters wide, hit at a modest angle, moving a lot of saltwater and maybe starting a big tsunami. The center crater is 3 kilometers wide and is encircled by a 20-kilometer circular fault system. This supports the idea that the impact was caused by something other than normal tectonic processes.
Professor Gareth Collins from Imperial College London and his team created advanced computer models and found that the asteroid impact theory is still the best explanation for how the crater formed.
There aren’t many preserved craters like Silverpit that are underwater. This confirmation adds to the list of known oceanic impact structures, which now is about 33. It joins other famous sites like Mexico’s Chicxulub Crater and the Nadir Crater off the coast of West Africa.