ScienceNorth Pole Dome’s proposed age of about 3.02 billion years is disputed
A post describes a 2026 study using zircon and apatite to date the Western Australian impact structure, also called Miralga. It cautions that neither its age nor its original size is settled.
TLDR
A post describes a 2026 study proposing an age of about 3.02 billion years for Western Australia’s North Pole Dome/Miralga structure. It says other researchers dispute the dating and that the original size remains debated—not a settled announcement of Earth’s oldest crater. The post also explains why ancient impact scars can be hard to find: erosion, burial and plate tectonics erase or conceal them, with some surviving as shocked minerals and shatter cones rather than obvious bowls in the landscape.
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North Pole Dome’s proposed age of about 3.02 billion years is disputed
A post describes a 2026 study using zircon and apatite to date the Western Australian impact structure, also called Miralga. It cautions that neither its age nor its original size is settled.
TLDR
A post describes a 2026 study proposing an age of about 3.02 billion years for Western Australia’s North Pole Dome/Miralga structure. It says other researchers dispute the dating and that the original size remains debated—not a settled announcement of Earth’s oldest crater. The post also explains why ancient impact scars can be hard to find: erosion, burial and plate tectonics erase or conceal them, with some surviving as shocked minerals and shatter cones rather than obvious bowls in the landscape.