Scientists have uncovered the world's largest asteroid crash site based on geological evidence hidden beneath Australian soil.

A new study revealed that some 300 million to 600 million years ago, a gigantic asteroid was split into two before it smashed into the Earth. This impact of apocalyptic proportions created two large craters that extended more than 250 miles across when combined, an area is larger than the state of Missouri.

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Study lead author Andrew Glikson, a paleoclimate scientist from the Australian National University, said the two asteroids probably measured 6.2 miles across.

These impact sites are unlike the Meteor Crater in Arizona since they're hidden underground. These prehistoric craters were erased into obscurity by geological processes.

The craters, however, formed "domes" underneath the Earth's crust when the rock rebounded from the impact, and the ground up lifted from the mantle, said Glikson.

Glikson and his team saw clues of these domes while they were excavating and drilling into the Earth's crust as part of a geothermal research project in Australia's Warburton Basin.

After drilling more than 1.25 miles beneath the surface, they discovered traces of rocks that were melted into glass, a process that occurred during the catastrophic asteroid impact. Using magnetic models, the scientists then found iron and magnesium rich domes underground.

Researchers are still uncovering clues that could tell them how the actual impact looked like. They're still determining when the crash happened and are searching for the corresponding layer of sediments that would have resulted from the impact.

This newly discovered impact zone underneath the Warburton Basin is now the largest known impact crater on the planet, ahead of the Vredefort crater found in South Africa which was originally 185 miles across.

The Vredefort crater is still the oldest known impact crater on Earth and scientists believe it was created some 2.02 billion years ago.

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