[blam]

"If there was an impact in the last 10,000 years, then the logic would be that the survivors would be talking about it and including it in their traditions and legends," Peiser says. "If this proves to be an impact crater of a very young age, then this could have enormous consequences for our view of societal evolution and potentially might answer a lot of questions in the history of South America."

Imagine that.

[Miss Marple]

Thank you for posting the most interesting articles! I appreciate reading something other than politics occasionally, and you always have the best science anad archaeological articles. Thanks again!

[aruanan]

It'll be interesting to see how many other similarly-aged impact craters turn up in other parts of the world.

[RightWhale]

Treating a hit to solid ground as an exercise in fluid dynamics. This is done with earthquakes, too. Once the energy is high enough, the tensile strength of the material may be ignored along some vectors. That's not solid land, that's a squishy, mucky mass, not much different from the loose ball of comet dust that slammed into it.