World’s oldest known impact crater has been discovered by geologists and it is situated in the heart of Western Australia’s ancient Pilbara region.

It has been suggested by an analysis of rock layers in the region that a crater at least 62 miles (100 kilometres) wide was carved after a large space rock struck Earth roughly 3.47 billion years ago, when our planet was almost completely covered in water, reported Space.com.

This discovery pushes back the record for the oldest impact crater on Earth by more than 1 billion years — the previous record holder, the Yarrabubba impact structure, also is in Western Australia.

“Given how rare such evidence is due to [Earth’s] geological recycling processes, this is a major breakthrough in understanding early Earth,” Chris Kirkland of Curtin University in Australia, who led the discovery, told Space.com.

According to him, the researchers estimate the space rock responsible for the crater was traveling at 36,000 kilometres per hour, with the collision scattering debris across the planet.

Despite its global impact, however, the event was not merely a destructive force, according to Kirkland. The crater it left behind may have played a crucial role in fostering early life and therefore provide insights into how life on our planet might have originated, he said.

High pressures Resulting from shock waves released in the aftermath of meteorite impacts, high pressures are known to alter minerals within rocks, sometimes transforming them into translucent glass.

This allows for more sunlight to penetrate into the cracks fracturing the rocks in principle, creating the physical and chemical conditions necessary for early life to thrive.