{"id":630150,"date":"2026-09-28T15:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/630150\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T15:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:32:11","slug":"35-million-years-ago-a-massive-7km-wide-asteroid-smashed-into-earth-turning-graphite-into-diamonds-was-just-one-of-its-incredible-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/630150\/","title":{"rendered":"35 million years ago, a massive 7km-wide asteroid smashed into Earth \u2013 turning graphite into diamonds was just one of its incredible effects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>35 million years ago, around the same time\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/prehistoric-cats\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cats were beginning to evolve<\/a>\u00a0in Europe and Asia, a roughly 7km-wide asteroid smashed into northern Siberia, Russia. This impact created a crater that measures 100km across, making it the fourth largest verified impact structure on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The shock pressure from this particular impact was so extreme that it instantaneously transformed graphite in the ground into diamonds. These \u2018impact diamonds\u2019 can be found within a 13.6km radius of the impact point and while they may be unsuitable as gems, it\u2019s thought they may have some industrial uses.<\/p>\n<p>300km east from the outpost of Khatanga and 880km northeast of the city of Norilsk, the crater is situated in one of the most remote areas on Earth, making it incredibly difficult to study. The area was also historically off limits due to the large deposits of diamonds found there. However, a major investigatory expedition was undertaken in 1997, greatly advancing understanding of the crater and the impact that caused it<\/p>\n<p>Subsequent studies suggest the Popigai impact may have coincided with the Chesapeake and Toms Canyon impacts. If this timing is correct, it could point to a disturbance in the asteroid belt that unleashed a multi-type asteroid shower that sent multiple asteroids crashing into Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Some have also linked this particular impact to an extinction event that took place between the Eocene and Oligocene. This extinction is marked by the glaciation of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/holidays-days-out\/antarctica\/has-antarctica-ever-been-ice-free\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Antarctica<\/a>\u00a0and a large turnover in animal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/speciation-guide\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">species<\/a>. It\u2019s unclear exactly what triggered this period of global cooling, but recent dating of the Popigai impact strengthens its association with the start of this period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"35 million years ago, around the same time\u00a0cats were beginning to evolve\u00a0in Europe and Asia, a roughly 7km-wide&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,141],"class_list":["post-630150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630150","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=630150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}