Bits of Object Hit Earth 214 Million Years Ago

About 214 million years ago, a comet or asteroid broke up on its way toward Earth and rained down chunks that left at least five huge craters, a study says.

Three of those craters formed a long running line, striking in what is now west-central France, an area just north of Baie-Comeau in Quebec, Canada, and Gypsumville, Manitoba, Canada, said researcher John G. Spray.

The craters no longer line up because of how the continents have shifted since the impacts. Two other craters may also have been formed by the broken-up object, one in North Dakota between Dickinson and Watford City, and the other in central Ukraine.

Spray, a geology professor at the University of New Brunswick, and colleagues present their work in the March 12 issue of the journal Nature.

Each crater had been shown to be the right age to suggest multiple impacts, they said. Their work showed that the three biggest craters lined up, given the orientation of the continents at the time of impact.

The craters in North Dakota and Ukraine are completely buried nowadays, but the Quebec one is visible from a satellite and parts of the other two remain exposed, Spray said.