Meteorite impact initiating plate tectonics, computer illustration. Research suggests that a meteorite impact million years ago may have initiate

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Meteorite impact initiating plate tectonics, computer illustration. Research suggests that a meteorite impact million years ago may have initiated plate tectonics, the movement of the Earth's crust. The 37 kilometre wide meteorite is thought to have hit at a speed of more than 70000 kilometres per hour. The heat of the shock wave would have boiled the oceans, liquefied rocks and cracked the Earth's crust. Fragments of the meteorite have been found in what is now South Africa.

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Size: 4000px × 2452px
Photo credit: © GREGOIRE CIRADE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: armageddon, artwork, asteroid, astrogeological, astrogeology, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, catastrophe, collision, continental, core, cosmic, cosmological, cosmology, crack, crust, drift, earth, exogeology, explosion, extinction, geological, geology, illustration, impact, meteorite, planet, plate, seismic, shock, solar, space, system, tectonic, tectonics, wave