Led by Curtin University geologists Chris Kirkland and Tim Johnson, a research team unearthed this primeval crater beneath rock layers in the East Pilbara Terrane of Western Australia. The oldest Archaean crater before this discovery went back only 2.2 billion years.

Scientists believe a newly-discovered crater believed to be the oldest in the world reveals a number of clues to the early days of life on Earth. A team of researchers at Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences,

Curtin University researchers have discovered the world's oldest known meteorite impact crater, which could significantly redefine our understanding of the origins of life and how our planet was shaped.

Scientists have found the oldest impact crater on Earth – and it changes our understanding of our planet and the origins of life.

It was a respectable tenure, but the world’s oldest known meteorite site is no longer western Australia’s 2.2 billion-year-old, 43-mile-wide Yarrabubba crater. Researchers at Curtin University and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) say the new recordholder is located about 660 miles north in the country’s Pilbara region.

Researchers say they have found "unequivocal evidence" that a meteorite smashed into Earth 3.47 billion years ago, potentially affecting plate tectonics and creating conditions for life.

“On Earth, this early impact record has seemingly been lost, reflecting the destructive efficiency of erosion and subduction in recycling primary (basaltic, oceanic) crust back into the convecting mantle,” Kirkland and Johnson said in a study recently published in Nature Communications.

The oldest meteorite impact crater on Earth (3.5 billion years old) has been discovered in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Scientists published the discovery of a 3.5-billion-year-old meteorite impact crater, making it the oldest known by more than a billion years.

A Curtin University group has identified what may be Earth’s oldest meteorite strike in a remote part of Western Australia’s Pilbara region, near the North Pole Dome. Evidence in local rock indicates the collision happened around 3.