{"id":27950,"date":"2025-04-29T07:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=media-release&#038;p=27950"},"modified":"2025-04-29T10:37:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T02:37:00","slug":"billion-year-old-impact-in-scotland-sparks-questions-about-life-on-land","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/billion-year-old-impact-in-scotland-sparks-questions-about-life-on-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Billion-year-old impact in Scotland sparks questions about life on land"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>New Curtin University research has revealed that a massive meteorite struck northwestern Scotland about 200 million years later than previously thought, in a discovery that not only rewrites Scotland\u2019s geological history but alters our understanding of the evolution of non-marine life on Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previously believed to have occurred 1.2 billion years ago, the impact created the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stac_Fada_Member\">Stac Fada Member<\/a>, a layer of rock that holds vital clues to Earth\u2019s ancient past, including how meteorite strikes may have influenced the planet\u2019s environment and life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Billion-year-old impact in Scotland sparks questions about life on land\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/visgt2zmkSg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lead author <a href=\"https:\/\/staffportal.curtin.edu.au\/staff\/profile\/view\/chris-kirkland-fff48934\/\">Professor Chris Kirkland<\/a>, from Curtin\u2019s Frontier Institute for Geoscience Solutions within the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the research team used tiny zircon crystals as geological \u2018time capsules\u2019 to date the impact to 990 million years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese microscopic crystals recorded the exact moment of impact, with some even transforming into an incredibly rare mineral called reidite, which only forms under extreme pressures,\u201d Professor Kirkland said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis provided undeniable proof that a meteorite strike caused the Stac Fada deposit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen a meteorite hits, it partially resets the atomic clocks inside the zircon crystals and these \u2018broken timepieces\u2019 are often unable to be dated but we developed a model to reconstruct when the disturbance occurred, confirming the impact at 990 million years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Kirkland said this impact event occurred at a similar time to the emergence of some of the earliest freshwater <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eukaryote\">eukaryotes<\/a>, which are the ancient ancestors of plants, animals and fungi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe revised dating suggests these life forms in Scotland appeared at a similar time to a meteorite impact,\u201d Professor Kirkland said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis raises fascinating questions about whether large impacts may have influenced environmental conditions in ways that affected early ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile the impact crater itself has yet to be found, this study has collected further clues that could finally reveal its location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUnderstanding when meteorite impacts occurred helps us explore their potential influence on Earth\u2019s environment and the expansion of life beyond the oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research was done in collaboration with NASA Johnson Space Center, University of St. Andrews, University of Portsmouth, and Carl Zeiss Microscopy Ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The paper, <em>\u2018A one-billion-year-1 old Scottish meteorite impact,\u2019 <\/em>has been published in Geologyand is available online here: <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1130\/G53121.1\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1130\/G53121.1<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Curtin University research has revealed that a massive meteorite struck northwestern Scotland about 200 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4307,"featured_media":27951,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"6009,7816,6727,6190,7944,8378","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,284],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-27950","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-science","category-science-and-engineering"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":[24386,24381]},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"experts":false},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/stac-fada-member-web-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Lucien","last_name":"Wilkinson","display_name":"Lucien Wilkinson"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/27950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/27950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27950"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=27950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}