Scientists have found evidence in north-western Australia of a massive asteroid, 20 to 30km wide, that struck Earth more than 3 billion years ago and caused an impact larger than anything humans have experienced.

Dr Glikson and Dr Arthur Hickman from Geological Survey of Western Australia, who published the relative research in the journal Precambrian Research, announced they found tiny glass beads called spherules in a drill core from Marble Bar. These glass beads were formed from vaporised material from the asteroid impact.

The sediment layer, which was originally on the ocean floor, was preserved between two volcanic layers and enabled very precise dating of its origin.

Subsequent testing found the levels of elements such as platinum, nickel and chromium matched those in asteroids.

“The impact would have triggered earthquakes orders of magnitude greater than terrestrial earthquakes, it would have caused huge tsunamis and would have made cliffs crumble,” said Dr Glikson, while claiming that there may have been many more similar impacts, for which the evidence has not been found yet.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve only found evidence for 17 impacts older than 2.5 billion years, but there could have been hundreds,” he said.