According to scientists, enormous meteorite impacts are what formed the continents

Scientists say they have found the strongest evidence yet the continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts.

These would have taken place during the first billion years of Earth’s four-and-a-half-billion-year history.

Researchers say the idea that the continents originally formed at sites of these collisions had been around for decades, but until now there was little solid evidence to support the theory.

Analysis of minerals in rocks suggests that continents were formed through giant meteorite impacts similar to those that wiped out the dinosaurs, only billions of years earlier.

Dr Tim Johnson, from Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, in Australia, said: ‘By examining tiny crystals of the mineral zircon in rocks from the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, which represents Earth’s best-preserved remnant of ancient crust, we found evidence of these giant meteorite impacts.

The three stage evolution of the Pilbara Craton. Stage 1 (a-d) – A giant meteorite altered the crust, reducing pressure and causing the mantle to melt deeper and deeper into the Earth. Stage 2 (e) – Granite magmas (TTGs) begin to form at the base of the newly formed plateu. Stage 3 (f) – The TTGs melt to form granite and are pushed to the surface.

‘Studying the composition of oxygen isotopes in these zircon crystals revealed a ‘top-down’ process starting with the melting of rocks near the surface and progressing deeper, consistent with the geological effect of giant meteorite impacts.

‘Our research provides the first solid evidence that the processes that ultimately formed the continents began with giant meteorite impacts, similar to those responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, but which occurred billions of years earlier.’

The processes caused by the impacts caused the Earth to look like it does now

He added that understanding the formation and ongoing evolution of the Earth’s continents is crucial as these landmasses host the majority of Earth’s biomass, all humans and almost all of the planet’s important mineral deposits.

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