The Nördlinger Ries is a 26 km wide impact structure in the Bavaria region of Southern Germany. It formed as a consequence of an asteroid impact 14.8 ma years ago in the Miocene. It is the only known rampart crater found on Earth and is accompanied by the smaller 3.8 km wide impact crater ‘Steinheim’ some 42 km west-southwest of the main crater. Hallmark of the impact structure are its suevite breccias, which formed due to the impact. They are composed of glass, crystal and/or lithic fragments. Notable outcrops are exposed at various accessible quarries in the surrounding area, such as Altenbürg and Aumühle. The rock type has been used in the construction of various building in the town Nördlingen. Notably, the impact structure and its suevites played an important role in the geological field training of Apollo astronauts and present-day cohorts of European astronauts. More on Ries suevites in the paper of Stöffler et al., 2013.
Comments