Around the same time the Earth was smashed by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, it was hit by another huge and destructive rock, according to a new study.

Scientists have found a vast pit just off the coast of Guinea that appears to have been left behind when a meteor smashed into the Earth and left behind an impact creator, according to a new study.

It is still not clear how old the crater is, and scientists are yet to definitively confirm what caused it.

But it appears to have been formed around 66 million years ago, just before or after Chicxulub, the crater that was left behind in the Gulf of Mexico, when a miles-wide asteroid smashed into the Earth and caused horrific conditions that were enough to wipe out the dinosaurs.

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The new crater, nicknamed Nadir, appears to have been caused by something that would be comparably destructive on its own.

It looks to have been formed by an asteroid around measuring 400 meters across. Its collision with the Earth would have released 1,000 times more energy than the recent Tonga eruption, or 5,000 megatons of TNT.

Read more: Independent