Asteroid Mystery Solved; The Largest Recent Impact Crater was Found

Approximately 790,000 years ago a cataclysm occurred which scattered large quantities of black glass across 4 continents, totalling 15% of the Earth’s surface. This occurred due to an impact event, the largest known to occur in the last 2.5 million years. Yet, despite a long search, the source impact crater which was expected to be wider than 10 miles or 16 kilometers across could not be found. However, this has all changed as a large impact crater was recently discovered underneath a now dormant volcanic field in Laos, with this crater being the source of the Australasian tektites. Thumbnail Photo Credit: Frame grab/screenshot from a video at 0m04s by, ds-films, Pixabay, Pixabay License, This image was then overlaid with text in addition to GeologyHub made graphics (the image border). Estimates on asteroid diameter, velocity, and tnt energy equivalent in this video were sourced using the calculator at , which was used with permission. If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: ) (YouTube membership: ) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: ) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: ) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video’s thumbnail image: Pixabay License: Public Domain: CC BY 1.0: CC BY 4.0: Sources/Citations: [1] Chernonozhkin, S.M., González de Vega, C., Artemieva, N. et al. Isotopic evolution of planetary crusts by hypervelocity impacts evidenced by Fe in microtektites. Nat Commun 12, 5646 (2021). , CC BY 4.0. This paper was used to loosely trace a map via its figure 1 of the extent of the Australasian strewnfield. [2] Andrea Verolino, Susanna F. Jenkins, Kerry Sieh et al. Assessing Volcanic Hazard and Exposure at Obscure Volcanic Fields: A Case Study from the Bolaven Volcanic Field, Laos, 11 October 2021, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [] [3] Verolino, A., Jenkins, S.F., Sieh, K. et al. Assessing volcanic hazard and exposure to lava flows at remote volcanic fields: a case study from the Bolaven Volcanic Field, Laos. J Appl. Volcanol. 11, 6 (2022). , CC BY 4.0. This source was used to create the outline of the Bolaven Volcanic Field, age of its eruptions, rate of eruptions, rate of eruptions during a set geologic timespan (such as in the last x years with x being a number of years), type of lava it erupts, and location of the Laos impact crater related to the Australasian tektites. [4] McCall (2005) Known Tektite Strewn Fields and Finds from McCall. [5] G. Collins & others, “A numerical assessment of simple airblast models of impact...“, Meteoritics & Planetary Science, (2017), CC BY 4.0 [6] 0:00 Strange Glass 0:55 Tektites 2:32 Bolaven Volcanic Field 3:25 Impact Crater Caused Volcanism? 4:05 Conclusion