By Tim Binnall
A researcher studying seismic data from off the coast of West Africa has discovered an ancient crater which seems to suggest that there may have been a second major asteroid strike at around the time of the dinosaurs' demise. The intriguing find was reportedly made by geologist Dr Uisdean Nicholson as he was studying advanced oceanic survey information produced by oil and gas companies with the intention of finding promising places to drill. These insights "are kind of like an ultrasound of Earth," he explained to the BBC, "I've spent probably the last 20 years interpreting them, but I've never seen anything like" the peculiar crater that he noticed approximately 250 miles from the coast of Guinea.
The site, which Nicholson has dubbed Nadir Crater, sits beneath nearly 1,000 feet of sediment and bears the hallmarks of an asteroid impact, including "a raised rim surrounding a central uplift area, and then layers of debris that extend outwards." Intriguingly, fossils found at the same depth in a neighboring borehole would seem to suggest that the odd impression, which measures approximately five miles across and 130 feet deep, was created around 66 million years ago. This time period is also when the infamous dinosaur-killing asteroid hit the planet and formed what is known as the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
Based on computer simulations, it is believed that the asteroid which struck the planet and formed the Nadir Crater was likely around 1,300 feet in diameter. The impact from the event would have produced both an enormous tsunami as well as a 6.5 magnitude earthquake. "The energy released would have been around 1,000 times greater than that from the January 2022 eruption and tsunami in Tonga," he explained. While this would have paled in comparison to the Chicxulub event, since that asteroid believed to have been 6 to 7 miles in diameter, the impact would have been disastrous for many creatures living in the general area of the site.
Having seemingly been formed at around the same time, the discovery of the Nadir crater has given rise to speculation that it may have been connected to the Chicxulub event. However, in order to truly know if the curious depression is a genuine asteroid impact site, researchers will need to pull samples from the location to see if they show the type of geological signs associated with an extraterrestrial body striking the planet with tremendous force. Should that be the case and if the date can be narrowed down closer to when Chicxulub event occurred, it raises the possibility that the dinosaurs may not have been felled by a barrage of asteroid impacts rather than a solitary strike.