* Astronomy

An asteroid between one and four km in diameter splashed into the Southern Ocean, 1500 km SW of Chile, and may have worsened a period of global cooling that saw the emergence of modern humans... At the time of the Eltanin impact, Homo erectus was emerging in Africa



The Eltanin crater is located in the Bellinghausen Sea, south of the Pacific Ocean, is a possible result of an abyssal oceanic impact event of the late Pliocene. The Eltanin impact event occurred at 2.15±0.5 Million years ago and littered the oceanic floor with asteroidal debris. This debris is found within the Eltanin Impact Layer that was first discovered as an Iridium anomaly in 1981.



In 2004 a possible source crater was found at 57°47' S , 90°47' W under 5000 meters of water. The crater is 132±5km in diameter, much larger than the previously proposed size of 24 to 80 km.
microtektites of potassium feldspar spherules were found in the ejecta blanket. The spherules melted in the vapour cloud of the impact and solidified in spherical form. The maximum spherule concentrations are found 95 cm below the top of the impact layer.

The impact would have produced a 200–300 m high tsunami to the Antarctic Peninsula and the southern tip of South America 1200–1500 km away. 60 m waves would have struck New Zealand, 6000 km away.