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A massive meteorite, first discovered in 2014, triggered a tsunami larger than any known in human history and even boiled Earth’s oceans, according to recent research. The space rock, named S2, was 200 times the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, and it struck our planet over three billion years ago, during Earth’s infancy.
To better understand the impact, scientists, led by Harvard’s Prof. Nadja Drabon, trekked to South Africa’s Barberton Greenbelt, one of the oldest known meteorite impact sites. Equipped with sledgehammers, the team hiked deep into the remote mountains to collect rock samples. Their findings reveal that, while these massive collisions caused significant destruction, they also played a crucial role in shaping early life.
“We’ve known that Earth, in its early years, was bombarded by debris from space,” said Prof. Drabon. “But now we have evidence that life was incredibly resilient after these impacts, even thriving in the aftermath.”
S2 dwarfs the more familiar asteroid that struck 66 million years ago and led to the dinosaurs’ extinction. While that asteroid was about 10 kilometers wide, S2 measured between 40 and 60 kilometers and had a mass up to 200 times greater. It hit Earth when the planet was mostly covered in water, with only a few small continents. At the time, life was simple, made up of single-celled microorganisms.
At the impact site, Prof. Drabon and her team collected spherule particles—tiny rock fragments left behind by the crash—and pieced together the dramatic aftermath of S2’s impact. The meteorite gouged out a 500-kilometer-wide crater, ejecting molten rock into the atmosphere. The fallout created a “rain” of molten rock droplets that showered the globe.
The energy released was immense, generating a planet-wide tsunami and causing the oceans to boil, evaporating tens of meters of water and raising air temperatures by up to 100°C. The skies darkened as dust and debris choked out sunlight, wiping out simple organisms that relied on photosynthesis.
But in a surprising twist, the violent impact also churned up nutrients like phosphorus and iron, essential for life. The tsunami’s sweeping currents brought iron-rich waters from the ocean depths to the surface, feeding early microbes and sparking a rapid resurgence of life.
“Life was not only resilient but rebounded quickly,” said Drabon. “The impacts acted like a giant fertilizer, spreading nutrients across the planet, and early life flourished.”
This discovery challenges the notion that asteroid impacts were purely destructive. Instead, the team’s findings suggest that these catastrophic events helped early life not just survive, but thrive.
