This means the craters were formed by an extremely unlikely coincidence of two asteroids landing in the same spot, 185 million years apart

It is thought to have been created separately 460 million years ago

But analysis of rocks suggests the East lake is much older

The Clearwater Lakes were thought to have both formed 285m years ago

Two neighbouring ancient craters thought to be have been formed by the same impact event are now thought to have been created by two separate asteroids.

The extremely unlikely formation theory was reached after scientists re-analysed rocks at the site, and found dates for the two were vastly different.

While both had been thought to be 285 million years old, it now appears one of the craters is actually 450 million years old but, by chance, was created in almost exactly the same spot.

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The two Clearwater Lake craters in Canada may not have been formed by a binary asteroid. Its thought the East crater asteroid impacted a marine environment during the Ordovician period, 490 million years ago. The West crater was created in the Permian period 285 million years ago and impacted the landmass Pangaea

Researchers from the University of Western Australia say the Clearwater lakes in Canada were formed by two separate events in a 'pure coincidence'.

The remarkable finding, if confirmed, has important implications for other so-called 'doublet' craters in the solar system, previously thought to be formed by binary or multiple rocks impacting at the same time.

And the huge difference in time between the two events is even more amazing as, at the time the first crater was made, the location of the second was underwater.

The research was published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta and reported by Astrobiology Magazine.

DID THE IMPACTS CAUSE AN EXTINCTION EVENT? Impacts that leave behind a 62-mile (100km) diameter crater or less, such as those that struck the Clearwater lakes, are widely thought to have no global effects. In fact, impacts can even increase biodiversity. For example, the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, which saw an explosion in the number of animal species around 470 million years ago, has been linked to frequent impact events at the time. This is possibly due to the fact that an impact could disrupt local life just enough to let another species dominate, or because slowly cooling craters can provide habitats for life. Even if the Clearwater Lakes impacts were caused by a double impact, the extra energy released by two bodies smashing into the Earth simultaneously would have had no significant effect on life. While the fireball and earthquake would have decimated any life within a few hundred kilometers, the impacts were not big enough to cause much chaos on a global scale. Advertisement

The Clearwater lakes in Canada are a pair of lakes labelled as West and East.

The smaller eastern crater is about 16 miles (26km) in diameter, while the western crater is about 22 miles (36km).

In the original theory, a binary asteroid - two asteroids orbiting a common centre of mass - struck the ground simultaneously 285 million years ago.

But the researchers say the original methods used to date the East lake, by measuring amounts of argon-40, were inaccurate.

Upon analysing new samples at the site, they found a maximum age of 460 million years, far older than the West Clearwater Lake, which is 285 million years old.

'The close spatial arrangement of the two Clearwater Lakes is most likely pure coincidence,' the researchers wrote in their paper.

A similar figure was reached by researchers in 1990 by a separate research team, but at the time the findings were dismissed as incorrect due to a supposed contamination from excess argon.

But with four different rock samples from various parts of the lake now studied, the researchers say it is highly unlikely they would all yield the same false age.

'We think that the accurate age for the East Clearwater crater was, in fact, already measured back in 1990,' said geologist and lead author Dr Martin Schmieder of the university.

The smaller eastern crater is about 16 miles (26km) in diameter, while the western crater is about 22 miles (36km). In the original theory, a binary asteroid - two asteroids orbiting a common centre of mass - struck the ground simultaneously 285 million years ago, but that is now believed to be inaccurate

The remarkable finding, if confirmed, has important implications for other so-called 'doublet' craters in the solar system, previously thought to be formed by binary or multiple rocks impacting at the same time. Shown is a map of the location of the Clearwater Lakes

It's unlikely that the event that formed the Clearwater Lakes had any significant impact on life. Even if the Clearwater Lakes impacts were caused by a double impact, the extra energy released by two bodies smashing into the Earth simultaneously would have had no significant effect on life

Further evidence for the latest findings comes from the amount of chlorine in the two craters.

This part of Canada - referred to as Laurentia - had less land 460 million years ago than it did 285 million years ago, when waters receded, forming the landmass called Pangaea.

The rocks from the East crater have more chlorine than the West crater, suggesting they formed on a coastline when water was still abundant in the area.

Despite the fact that it is statistically very unlikely for the two craters to have been formed in two separate impact events, the new evidence unearthed by the team shows that in this case the more unlikely scenario is true.

'Overall, the doublet theory has been so compellingly advocated over the decades that alternative scenarios seem to have been abandoned,' said Dr Schmieder.