Glass strewn across southern Australia has been revealed to be the remnants of a previously unknown asteroid impact which happened about 11 million years ago (mya). The search is now on to find the impact crater, which researchers believe could lie undiscovered in volcanic arcs surrounding Australia. Credit: Musolino et al 2025, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (CC BY 4.0)“These glasses are unique to Australia and have recorded an ancient impact event we did not even know about,” says Professor Fred Jourdan, geochronologist and geochemist at Curtin University. These tiny pieces of glass are like little time capsules from deep in our planet’s history.”The specimens analysed in the new study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters are ‘tektites’. The subtype of impact-produced glass is found in large ‘strewn fields’ located long distances from the impact crater which produced them.