---
title: "Ancient Antarctica Was Blasted by a Giant Flamethrower From Space"
description: "About 430,000 years ago, a powerful blast of superheated gas and air incinerated the surface of Antarctica. The hellish inferno came down from space like a gigantic flamethrower after a football field-sized object entered and exploded within the Earth’s atmosphere, according to Gizmodo. When it landed, the “airburst,” as the University of Kent […]"
date: "2021-03-31"
modified: "2021-03-31"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ancient-antarctica-blasted-flamethrower-space"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "airburst"
  - "meteor"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Ancient Antarctica Was Blasted by a Giant Flamethrower From Space

![430,000 years ago, a powerful blast of ultrahot, superaccelerated air hit Earth and incinerated a huge area of Antarctica.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/explosion-gas.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Futurism\</em\>*

## Blast Zone

About 430,000 years ago, a powerful blast of superheated gas and air incinerated the surface of Antarctica.

The hellish inferno came down from space like a gigantic flamethrower after a football field-sized object entered and exploded within the Earth's atmosphere, [according to *Gizmodo*](<https://gizmodo.com/antarctica-got-blasted-by-a-powerful-airburst-event-4-1846589992>). When it landed, the "airburst," as the University of Kent scientists who discovered it call it, it scorched everything in the area at several thousand degrees Fahrenheit.

## History Repeats

There have been multiple airburst events during human history, though they were far less severe than the one in question here, according to *Gizmodo*.

A [similar fireball](<https://futurism.com/anniversary-of-the-tunguska-event-what-really-happened>) flattened a huge chunk of the Siberian forest in 1908. [Another one](<https://futurism.com/meteor-explodes-over-russia>) exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013.

## Trace Evidence

The explosion didn't leave a crater, but it did leave behind evidence in the form of tiny, black spheres of metal and rock that fused together during the extreme temperatures, according to [the team's research](<https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/14/eabc1008>), which was published Wednesday in the journal *Science Advances*. But if it were to happen again, we would definitely notice.

Lead study author Matthias van Ginneken, a University of Kent geochemist, told *Gizmodo* that "anything standing directly under its way would have been vaporized."

And if it were to happen again, "it would be disastrous and extremely destructive over several hundreds of kilometers."

**READ MORE:** [Antarctica Got Blasted by a Powerful ‘Airburst’ Event 430,000 Years Ago](<https://gizmodo.com/antarctica-got-blasted-by-a-powerful-airburst-event-4-1846589992>) \[*Gizmodo*\]

**More on airburst explosions:** *[Anniversary of the Tunguska Event: What Really Happened?](<https://futurism.com/anniversary-of-the-tunguska-event-what-really-happened>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)