Meteor 'left huge crater in Canada'
A giant meteor struck Canada within the last 70 million years, creating a crater five miles (8km) wide, scientists believe.
The force of the blast in southern Alberta would have been powerful enough to destroy present-day Calgary.
Seismic surveys have revealed a ring-like structure in the Earth’s surface at the impact site near the hamlet of Bow City.
All that remains today is a semi-circular depression five miles (8km) across with a central peak.
Wei Xie, from the University of Alberta, said: “An impact of this magnitude would kill everything for quite a distance. If it happened today, Calgary (124 miles/ 200km to the north-west) would be completely fried and in Edmonton (310 miles/499km north-west) every window would have been blown out.
“Something of that size, throwing that much debris in the air, potentially would have global consequences; there could have been ramifications for decades.”
When it formed, the crater probably reached a depth of up to 1.5 miles (2.4km), said the researchers, whose findings appear in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
