Overview
- Curtin University and the Geological Survey of Western Australia published a Geology paper on Tuesday that reports new mineral dates for the North Pole Dome impact site in the Pilbara.
- The team used uranium–lead dating on zircon grains altered by shock and on hydrothermal apatite and obtained concordant ages around 3.02–3.024 billion years.
- The new mineral ages replace an earlier 2025 stratigraphic estimate of ~3.47 billion years and respond to a separate critique that argued the impact could be no older than ~2.77 billion years.
- Some researchers accept the direct dates as stronger evidence, while others remain unconvinced and say the dated minerals could record later hydrothermal events or rely on uncertain rock correlations.
- If the 3.02‑billion‑year age holds, the site would push Earth’s well‑dated crater record back by roughly 750 million years from Yarrabubba and offer a rare window on Archean fracture and hydrothermal systems that may have influenced early microbial habitats.