Researchers find evidence of the UK's biggest ever meteorite impact

by Rich Bowden - Mar 27 2008, 01:56

A team of scientists from Oxford University and the University of Aberdeen have found evidence of the biggest ever meteorite strike in the British Isles.

Rock formations near the northwest Scottish town of Ullapool were originally thought to be formed by volcanic eruptions, however the researchers have since found the area was hit by a giant meteorite some 1.2 billion years ago.

"If there had been human observers in Scotland 1.2 billion years ago they would have seen quite a show," commented Ken Amor of Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences.

"The massive impact would have melted rocks and thrown up an enormous cloud of vapour that scattered material over a large part of the region around Ullapool," he said.

"The crater was rapidly buried by sandstone which helped to preserve the evidence."

The team found evidence of meteors embedded in a layer of rocks over an area of about 50 kilometres which they believe was the ejected material from the strike.

"Chemical testing of the rocks found the characteristic signature of meteoritic material, which has high levels of the key element iridium, normally only found in low concentrations in surface rocks on Earth," said Amor, who was co-author of the report.

 "We found more evidence when we examined the rocks under a microscope; tell-tale microscopic parallel fractures that also imply a meteorite strike."

The volcanic origin of the rock formation has always been problematic say the researchers and the samples taken from the fieldwork of the researchers have proved the meteorite theory.

"These rocks are superbly displayed on the west coast of Scotland, and visited by numerous student parties each year, said Professor John Parnell, Head of Geology & Petroleum Geology at the University of Aberdeen, and also a co-author on the paper.

"We’re very lucky to have them available for study, as they can tell us much about how planetary surfaces, including Mars, become modified by large meteorite strikes."

"Building up the evidence has been painstaking, but has resulted in proof of the largest meteorite strike known in the British Isles," Prof. Parnell added.

The findings of the research team has been written up in the journal Geology.

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