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Oklahoma's Ames meteor crater may be 100 million years younger than…

Zircon crystals from the buried ten-mile-wide Ames crater in northwest Oklahoma point to an age of 370 million years; the extinction link is a coincidence in timing.

On air: Dale Bearman and Hank Ledger on BBN Newsroom
Published 1:51 PM ET, Friday, October 16, 2026

Photo: Jstuby · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

▶ As it aired · U.S.

Watch it as it aired: Dale Bearman and Hank Ledger on this story, from BBN Newsroom at 1:51 PM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are Live Science's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: Jstuby · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

Photo: Ames crater — Photo: Jstuby · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

At a glance

First reported by Live Science: “One of America's biggest meteor craters is 100 million years younger than we thought — and coincided with a global extinction event”.
Covered on BBN on Friday, October 16, 2026, at 1:51 PM ET on BBN Newsroom, by Dale Bearman and Hank Ledger.
Topics: Oklahoma, America.
BBN covered this story before: Diesel squeezes an Oklahoma rancher as wholesale costs bite (October 16).

The real story

The reporting behind this segment. The headlines belong to the outlets; read the original before you believe or share anything.

Live ScienceOne of America's biggest meteor craters is 100 million years younger than we thought — and coincided with a global extinction event

What BBN said about it

Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorOn October fourteenth, twenty twenty-six, Live Science reported that the Ames crater in northwest Oklahoma is far younger than anyone thought, and I have never felt so vindicated.
Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe crater is ten miles wide and buried. Researchers studied tiny zircon crystals and put its age at three hundred seventy million years.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThat is a hundred million years off. Someone has been wishing it the wrong happy birthday for ages.
Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNobody was wishing it anything. It's underground.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorAnd the new date coincides with the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction. A rock fell, and then everything died.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorI'm only saying what the crystals are saying.
Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe study suggests that date. It says coincided, not caused. Nobody has proven the crater ended anything.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorCoincided.
Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThree hundred seventy million years it waited for attention, and you're the one who showed up. It's still under Oklahoma.

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