Overview
- The peer‑reviewed paper in Nature Communications, led by Dr Uisdean Nicholson of Heriot‑Watt University with NERC support, closes a two‑decade scientific dispute.
- High‑resolution seismic data map a ~3 km central crater encircled by concentric faults to ~20 km, buried ~700 m below the seabed about 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast.
- Recovered impact diagnostics—shocked quartz and feldspar—from an offshore well confirm a hypervelocity strike rather than salt movement or volcanic collapse.
- Numerical models indicate a shallow‑angle impact from the west that lofted a ~1.5 km curtain of water and debris, followed by a tsunami exceeding 100 m across the prehistoric North Sea.
- Researchers estimate an impactor roughly 160 m wide that struck during the Eocene (~43–46 million years ago), with Silverpit now ranked among the best‑preserved submarine impact craters.