Seven continents make up less than 30% of the landforms on Earth today, with the remaining 70% being covered by water. The planet’s existing topography and geography are a result of the continents evolving over millions of years as a result of plate tectonics and crustal motions.
The greatest evidence to date that the continents of Earth were created by massive meteorite impacts, however, comes from a recent study that suggests that it all started with a bang. In the first billion years of our planet’s almost 4.5 billion-year history, these impacts were common. The study supports long-held hypotheses that the continents formed around the locations of meteor impacts.
The Earth is the only planet known to contain continents, according to a study published in the journal Nature, however it is unclear how they originated and changed over time. The research stated that by interacting with the vast ocean, ‘giant impacts provide a mechanism for shattering the crust and producing persistent hydrothermal alteration.’
Dr. Tim Johnson from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences said in a statement that the research ‘provides the first solid evidence’ that the processes that ultimately formed the continents began with massive meteorite impacts billions of years earlier than those that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
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