Study suggests Alberta may have been struck by massive meteorite

An ancient ring-like structure discovered in southern Alberta has pointed towards a possible meteorite strike.

Alberta Geological Survey geologist, Paul Glombick, had discovered the first hints about the impact site in 2009 which were later studied by a University of Alberta team led by Doug Schmitt, Canada Research Chair in Rock Physics.

Schmitt, a professor at the Faculty of Science and co-author of the study, said that they know the impact occurred within the last 70 million years, and in that time about 1.5 km of sediment has been eroded which makes it really hard to pin down and actually date the impact.

He said that erosion has now worn away leaving an eight kilometres wide crater across with a central peak, and an impact of this magnitude would kill everything for quite a distance.

Schmitt added that if it happened today, Calgary (200 km to the northwest) would be completely fried and in Edmonton (500 km northwest), every window would have been blown out and something of that size, throwing that much debris in the air potentially would have global consequences.

The study was published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.