Scientists have recently suggested that the largest asteroid impact in the world can be found buried in the town of Deniliquin, located in the southern region of New South Wales, Australia.
The impact of this newly found crater is three times larger than Chicxulub crater, which wiped out the dinosaurs, According to a study recently published in the Tectonophysics journal, the newly discovered crater's impact is not just big, but a staggering three times larger than the infamous 150 km-wide Chicxulub crater that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs sixty-six million years ago.
Lead author and Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales, Andrew Glikson, also suggests that the newly discovered crater is around 520 kilometres wide and could have hit the Earth around 420 million years ago.
Although the scientists could not calculate the exact size of the impact crater created after hitting the Earth's surface, they suggested that "it would have ushered in a new ice age, killing up to 85 per cent of the Earth's species at the time".
Meanwhile, geologist Tony Yeates said the potential crater could hold clues to the history of life on Earth.
Despite this, numerous scientists argue that the formation beneath Deniliquin is not a mere crater, but rather the outcome of a colossal collision between two landmasses of mountainous proportions.
The scientists also emphasised that conclusions can only be drawn from physical evidence, which can only be collected by deep drilling.
Identifying asteroids becomes a straightforward task when they have aged for thousands of years. However, those asteroids that collided with the Earth millions of years ago now lay buried and have been altered by multiple factors, such as water, weather, and geology, making their identification far more challenging.