Meteorite 200 times larger than one that killed dinosaurs reset early life
By 
Anthony King2024-10-23T08:44:00
Counterintuitively, impact brought benefits too by providing microorganisms with iron and phosphorus
A giant meteorite that slammed into Earth over 3 billion years ago devastated early microbial life in the oceans, but also freed a nutrient bonanza.
This meteorite was far larger than the infamous Cretaceous era ending one. ‘We’re looking at a bolide that was 500 to 200 times bigger than the one that killed off the dinosaurs,’ says Nadja Drabon, a geologist at Harvard University.
The Archean eon 3.6–4 billion years ago suffered at least 16 major impacts by meteorites upwards of 10km across. These would have vaporised enough rock to darken the ancient skies for years.