Researchers at the University of Rochester have created a more accurate simulation of the impact that created the Vredefort crater two billion years ago. An impactor hurtled toward Earth around two billion years ago, crashing into the planet not far from where Johannesburg, South Africa is now. T
The new research indicates that the impactor would have to be about 20 to 25 kilometers in size and move at a velocity of 15 to 20 kilometers per second.
“Understanding the largest impact structure that we have on Earth is critical,” says Natalie Allen ’20, now a Ph.D. student atAllen is the first author of the paper, based on research she conducted as an undergraduate at Rochester with Miki Nakajima, an assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences.
Allen, Nakajima, and their colleagues conducted simulations to match the updated size of the crater. Their results showed that an impactor would have to be much larger—about 20 to 25 kilometers —and traveling at a velocity of 15 to 20 kilometers per second to explain a crater 250 kilometers in size.
“Unlike the Chicxulub impact, the Vredefort impact did not leave a record of mass extinction or forest fires given that there were only single-cell lifeforms and no trees existed two billion years ago,” Nakajima says. “However, the impact would have affected the global climate potentially more extensively than the Chicxulub impact did.”
Allen says the experience of having undergraduate work result in a peer-reviewed journal article was very rewarding and helped her when applying for graduate school.
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