In Greenland found the largest meteorite crater on the planet. More - only on the moon and Mars.

Heavenly visitor with a diameter of 30 km crashed into the Ground about three billion years ago, creating a funnel, which was once 25 km depth and 600 km wide.

The Vredefort crater from South Africa will have to move over. Formed about 2 billion years ago and bought 300 km in diameter, it is second Greenland and the age and size.

The new record is located to the East of the city of Maniitsoq on the West coast of Greenland. From the original crater left trench width of about 100 km of This, according to the discoverers, explains that the crater was discovered only now. Survived only the deepest part of it. All surface features that make it easy to learn the crater, was erased.

After three years of hard work Adam Garda from the Geological survey of Denmark and Greenland and his colleagues found that in their hands enough evidence. The main thing is the presence of granitoidov rocks, which are crushed and melted so that it can only be explained by a sudden and severe blow. Deformed granite is spread on a plot with parties 35 x 50 km, in the centre of which, apparently, and fell celestial body.

Such large-scale deformations granite could not be a result of known terrestrial processes. "Something similar can be seen in the geological faults, but not with a diameter of 100 km," says co-author opening Ian MacDonald from Cardiff University (UK).

In addition, quartz deposits in the impact zone have cracks and defects, which are very consistently correspond to samples from known craters. When the researchers measured the angles between the cracks and orientation of each quartz crystal, the results coincided with the picture created a shock wave, not a random pattern resulting from tectonic compression and stretching.

Commentators, however, is in doubt. "Sadly, hardly someone will be able to prove that this crater, " said John Spray from new Brunswick University (Canada). - And at the same time no one can refute it. Probably, there is on Earth and other equally ancient craters, but we do not recognize".

3 billion years ago our planet was inhabited only algae and cyanobacteria, and find out the impact of a meteorite impact on the development of life is almost impossible. If the visitor fell on us today, he would destroy most of the life on Earth.