An asteroid that struck Chesapeake Bay 35 million years ago left a long trail of destruction in its wake, new research suggests.
Around 35 million years ago, a small asteroid traveling at 40,000 miles per hour (64,373 kilometers per hour) struck Earth, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean near the modern-day town of Cape Charles, Virginia. The approximately 3-mile-wide (5-kilometer) object created a large impact crater that’s buried half a mile beneath Chesapeake Bay. Hundreds of miles south of the crater, scientists have found new evidence of the asteroid impact and the tsunami that followed the shattering event.
Hidden beneath the waters of the Chesapeake, the impact crater in Virginia is among the largest and most preserved craters found on Earth. The Chesapeake Bay crater was first discovered in 1990, and scientists are still trying to piece together the trail of destruction left by the asteroid. A team of geologists investigating fossils in Moore County, North Carolina, uncovered layers of rock they determined were forged by the asteroid impact and the tsunami that followed.
In a recently published study in Southeastern Geology, scientists document the far-reaching impact of the asteroid collision, detailing the discovery of a site found approximately 240 miles (386 km) away from the Virginia crater in the Sandhills of North Carolina.
