Imperial College London
Alternate

Dr Thomas M Davison

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Teaching Fellow in Computational Data Science
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 2019thomas.davison Website CV

 
 
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Location

 

4.85Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Erickson:2020:10.1038/s41467-019-13985-7,
author = {Erickson, TM and Kirkland, CL and Timms, NE and Cavosie, AJ and Davison, TM},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-13985-7},
journal = {Nature Communications},
pages = {1--8},
title = {Precise radiometric age establishes Yarrabubba, Western Australia, as Earth’s oldest recognised meteorite impact structure},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13985-7},
volume = {11},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The ~70 km-diameter Yarrabubba impact structure in Western Australia is regarded as among Earth’s oldest, but has hitherto lacked precise age constraints. Here we present U–Pb ages for impact-driven shock-recrystallised accessory minerals. Shock-recrystallised monazite yields a precise impact age of 2229 ± 5 Ma, coeval with shock-reset zircon. This result establishes Yarrabubba as the oldest recognised meteorite impact structure on Earth, extending the terrestrial cratering record back >200 million years. The age of Yarrabubba coincides, within uncertainty, with temporal constraint for the youngest Palaeoproterozoic glacial deposits, the Rietfontein diamictite in South Africa. Numerical impact simulations indicate that a 70 km-diameter crater into a continental glacier could release between 8.7 × 1013 to 5.0 × 1015 kg of H2O vapour instantaneously into the atmosphere. These results provide new estimates of impact-produced H2O vapour abundances for models investigating termination of the Paleoproterozoic glaciations, and highlight the possible role of impact cratering in modifying Earth’s climate.
AU  - Erickson,TM
AU  - Kirkland,CL
AU  - Timms,NE
AU  - Cavosie,AJ
AU  - Davison,TM
DO  - 10.1038/s41467-019-13985-7
EP  - 8
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2041-1723
SP  - 1
TI  - Precise radiometric age establishes Yarrabubba, Western Australia, as Earth’s oldest recognised meteorite impact structure
T2  - Nature Communications
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13985-7
UR  - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13985-7
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/76325
VL  - 11
ER  -
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