Anyone standing nearby would have been instantly burnt to a crisp by the scorching 200mph winds that swept across the land in its wake.
Such a terrifying spectacle would certainly have done little for the tourist industry in the tranquil Highland port of Ullapool which stood at very centre of Britain's largest ever meteorite strike. If only anybody was around to witness it.
Fortunately, it is around 1.2 billion years since the meteorite unleashed its destructive power on this starkly beautiful corner of north-west Scotland.
Yet, it is only now that scientists have finally uncovered the evidence to prove where the giant rock, which may have measured up to half a mile in diameter and left a crater eight miles wide, landed.
Academics from Aberdeen and Oxford universities are now convinced that it was a meteorite which caused highly unusual rock formations along a 30-mile stretch of coastline that draw thousands of visitors every year.
Previously, it was thought the intricate deposits of brightly coloured and rare minerals found on the Stoer peninsula were created by volcanic activity.
But after spending two years studying tiny samples of rock from the mountain Stac Fada under a microscope, geologists believe they have identified fragments of meteorite and say the centre of the crater would be where Ullapool now stands.
Ken Amor, of Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences, said: "This is the most spectacular evidence for a meteorite impact within the British Isles found to date.
"If there had been human observers in Scotland 1.2 billion years ago, they would have seen quite a show.
"The massive impact of the meteorite would have melted rocks and thrown up an enormous cloud of vapour that scattered material over a large part of the region around Ullapool.
"The crater was rapidly buried by sandstone which helped to preserve the evidence.
"What we have discovered about this meteorite strike could help us to understand the ancient impacts that shaped the surface of other planets, such as Mars."
Chemical testing of the sample rocks revealed evidence of what is knowns as an "ejecta blanket". This represents debris thrown out when the huge projectile slammed into the Earth's crust.
The ejected material was scattered over a 30-mile radius and the researchers found rocks containing high levels of iridium, a key sign of meteoritic activity.
Mr Amor added: "We found more evidence when we examined the rocks under a microscope; tell-tale microscopic parallel fractures that also imply a meteorite strike."
The geologists have now published their findings in the science journal Geology.
Co-author Professor John Parnell, head of Geology & Petroleum Geology at Aberdeen University, said: "These rocks are superbly displayed on the west coast of Scotland.
"Building up the evidence has been painstaking, but has resulted in proof of the largest meteorite strike known in the British Isles."
Space rubble, including meteorites, left over from the creation of the solar system has been landing on Earth for billions of years but only 174 have been large enough to leave craters or remnants of craters that are known to exist.
The world's largest known meteorite crater is at Bredefort in South Africa's Free State Province, which measures around 190 miles across.
Scott Thackrey, a PhD student at Aberdeen University who also worked on the report, said: "If this meteorite had struck Ullapool today, then the blast would have burnt the skin off people standing in Inverness 60 miles away. And 20 seconds after impact, Aberdeen which is 160 miles away would have suffered winds up to 200mph."
But, he added: "People nowadays should feel totally safe as we know the position of all major meteorites and they will not be heading our way."
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