Story highlights Tiny glass beads, the result of vaporized matter from the impact, provided the clues

Its impact would have been felt around the globe

(CNN) That asteroid which took out the dinosaurs all those years ago? That was nothing. Scientists say there was a bigger hunk of rock from space that whacked the Earth billions of years earlier.

And the damage from it? Apocalyptic.

"The impact would have triggered earthquakes orders of magnitude greater than terrestrial earthquakes. It would have caused huge tsunamis and would have made cliffs crumble," said Andrew Glikson, of the Australian National University (ANU) Planetary Institute.

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The asteroid, which is thought to have hit the Earth 3.46 billion years ago, is estimated to have been huge -- 12 to 18 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) wide -- and its impact would have been felt around the globe.

Glikson and his team are basing their assessment on the discovery of tiny glass beads called spherules. They materialized from vaporized material caused by the asteroid's impact.

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