science
Study Dates North Pole Dome Crater to 3.02 Billion Years
Researchers used uranium-lead dating on zircons and apatite inside shatter cones to assign an age of around 3.02 billion years to the North Pole Dome crater in Western Australia. Other scientists at the same institution argue the impact must postdate rocks dated to 2.77 billion years ago.
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A new analysis dates the North Pole Dome crater in Western Australia to approximately 3.02 billion years ago. Chris Kirkland at Curtin University and colleagues published the results in the journal Geology with DOI 10.1130/G54866.1. Kirkland's team first described the structure, also called the Miralga impact structure, in 2025 and estimated it could reach 100 kilometres across.
Their initial work placed the impact at 3.47 billion years based on rock-layer correlations. The revised study directly dated recrystallised zircons within shatter cones and apatite formed in the impact's hydrothermal system, both yielding ages near 3.02 billion years.
Kirkland stated that no evidence exists for heating or deformation from mountain building or regional metamorphism at that time, leaving an impact as the only linked process.
He said the findings support a 3-billion-year-old impact as the best current estimate and the oldest known on the planet. Aaron Cavosie, also at Curtin University, said the new study does not present a compelling case for a 3.02-billion-year impact. Cavosie noted shatter cones in rocks dated to 2.77 billion years old, which would require the impact to have occurred after that date.
Alec Brenner at Yale University agreed the rocks must be younger than 2.77 billion years based on correlation with nearby dated rocks. The Yarrabubba crater in southern Western Australia remains the oldest reliably dated asteroid-strike crater on Earth under the disputed timeline.
