“Kilometer-High Wall of Rock”: Asteroid Impact Solved as Mystery of North Sea’s ‘Silverpit’ Crater Unveiled
LONDON – A decades-long geological puzzle has been solved: the massive ‘Silverpit’ crater in the North Sea, discovered in 2002, was formed by an asteroid impact approximately 43 too 46 million years ago, triggering a colossal tsunami. Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh announced the findings today,confirming the structure’s origin after years of debate.
The circular Silverpit crater,hidden 700 meters beneath the seabed off the east coast of England,measures roughly eight kilometers in diameter. While it’s shape initially suggested an impact origin, some geologists proposed option explanations, including salt movements and volcanic activity.
however,the research team,led by Uisdean Nicholson,has now presented compelling evidence supporting the asteroid theory. “We found evidence that a 160 meter wide asteroid hit the sea floor from a western direction,” Nicholson stated, according to a university notice.
The impact created a “1.5 km high wall of rock and water” within minutes, later collapsing and generating a tsunami exceeding 100 meters in height, Nicholson explained.
crucial evidence came from new seismic recordings providing “an unprecedented insight into the crater,” alongside the finding of rare quartz and feldspar crystals in oil source samples at the crater’s depth. These crystals, the researchers say, could only have formed under the “extreme shock pressure” of an impact event. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
the confirmation of Silverpit as an impact crater adds it to a select group of known impact sites, including the Chicxulub crater in Mexico – linked to the dinosaur extinction – and the recently confirmed Nadir crater off West Africa. According to Nicholson, of the roughly 200 confirmed impact craters globally, only about 33 have been found underwater, highlighting the challenges of oceanic discovery.
