The <\/a>hole, now known as the Nadir Crater, rests roughly 300 meters beneath the ocean floor. After further analysis, the researchers were able to confirm that it was indeed created by an asteroid impact around 66 million years ago.<\/p>\n its size is about 9 km wide, points to an asteroid that was likely 450\u2013500 meters in diameter\u2014comparable to the Chicxulub impact<\/a>, the infamous asteroid linked to the extinction of the dinosaurs. While these two impacts were distinct, their similarities\u2014timing and scale\u2014add another layer to our understanding of mass extinction events.<\/p>\n The Immediate Aftermath: Tsunamis, Liquefied Rock, and Chaos<\/p>\n Thanks to cutting-edge 3D seismic imaging provided by the geophysical company TGS<\/a>, scientists have been able to reconstruct what likely happened in the minutes and hours following the asteroid\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n In their analysis published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment<\/a>, Nicholson and his team, the impact triggered molten rock to surge upwards, causing a massive zone of fractured rock to spread outward across thousands of square kilometers. The seismic data also revealed a catastrophic tsunami<\/a> sweeping across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n But it didn\u2019t end there. The impact also liquefied sediments beneath the seabed, causing them to flow inward toward the evacuated pit floor, forming a visible \u201cbrim.\u201d Landslides ensued as the plateau margin collapsed beneath the ocean, and evidence of tsunamis traveling back toward the pit was captured in the form of large \u201cresurge scars\u201d on the seabed. <\/p>\n A Unique Research Opportunity for the Future<\/p>\n What makes the Nadir Crater so special is its preservation. Unlike impact on land, which are often eroded and obscured by centuries of geological processes, it has remained largely intact beneath the ocean. For researchers like Dr. Nicholson, it\u2019s an unprecedented opportunity to test long-standing hypotheses about asteroid impacts and formation.<\/p>\n In fact, the team is planning a drilling expedition to recover cores from the basin\u2019s seabed. These cores will provide even more information about the shock pressures involved in the impact and help them refine the models they\u2019re using to understand how such holes form and evolve over time. He notes that:<\/p>\n \u201ccraters on the surface are usually heavily eroded and we can only see what is exposed, whereas craters on other planetary bodies usually only show the surface expression\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A giant asteroid impact crater, sitting 300 meters beneath the Atlantic Ocean floor, has been confirmed as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-124137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/A-map-showing-the-Nadir-Craters-position-integrated-with-seismic-and-well-dataset-1200x970.webp.webp\")
A map showing the Nadir Crater\u2019s position, integrated with seismic and well dataset. Credit: Nature Communications Earth & Environment.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-K-Pg-horizon-maps-showcasing-the-surface-expression-of-the-Nadir-Crater-1059x1200.webp.webp\")
The K-Pg horizon maps showcasing the surface expression of the Nadir Crater. Credit: Nature Communications Earth & Environment.<\/p>\n