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Article: Researchers find evidence of space rock smashing Earth nearly 3.5 billion years ago
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- August 22, 2002
- Author:
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Dateline: WASHINGTON
Nearly 3.5 billion years ago, when the Earth was just a billion years
old, a huge asteroid slammed into the young planet and produced a
global rain of glass droplets and towering tidal waves that raced
around the world, according to an analysis of ancient rocks.
Researchers at Stanford University and Louisiana State University
say samples collected from deposits in South Africa and Australia
show that a space rock about 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide smashed
into the Earth and sent into the atmosphere millions of tons of dust
and vaporized rock.
The rock samples have been age-dated at 3.47 billion years old and
are the oldest known evidence of an ...