Scientists believe a newly-discovered crater believed to be the oldest in the world reveals a number of clues to the early days of life on Earth. A team of researchers at Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences,

Led by Curtin University geologists Chris Kirkland and Tim Johnson, a research team unearthed this primeval crater beneath rock layers in the East Pilbara Terrane of Western Australia. The oldest Archaean crater before this discovery went back only 2.2 billion years.

Scientists published the discovery of a 3.5-billion-year-old meteorite impact crater, making it the oldest known by more than a billion years.

A Curtin University group has identified what may be Earth’s oldest meteorite strike in a remote part of Western Australia’s Pilbara region, near the North Pole Dome. Evidence in local rock indicates the collision happened around 3.