Oklahoma Meteor Crater Dates to 370 Million Years Ago, Linked to Marine Mass Extinction

A newly dated meteor crater beneath Oklahoma, known as the Ames impact, has been shown to be about 370 million years old—nearly a century younger than previously believed. Scientists used zircon crystal analysis to refine the age, revealing that the impact did not belong to the Ordovician bombardment that had been proposed as a cause for a mysterious ring of debris around Earth. Instead, the timing of the impact aligns closely with a major mass extinction event that devastated marine life during the late Devonian period. This finding reshapes the understanding of the crater’s role in Earth’s geological and biological history.