Scientists with a new theory about how Earth’s early continents formed predicted where a superold impact crater should be—then found it

Researchers in Western Australia’s Pilbara region have discovered the world’s oldest known meteorite impact crater, pushing back the previous record by more than one billion years.

It was a respectable tenure, but the world’s oldest known meteorite site is no longer western Australia’s 2.2 billion-year-old, 43-mile-wide Yarrabubba crater. Researchers at Curtin University and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) say the new recordholder is located about 660 miles north in the country’s Pilbara region.