The Ries crater in west Bavaria, Germany, is on rather a large scale as far as impact craters are concerned. In fact, the original crater is estimated at a diameter of around 24 km and this would mean that the impact was more likely to have come from an asteroid, which is a very large and far more destructive meteor.
The centre of the Ries crater lies around 6 km northeast of the town of Nordlingen and due to this proximity, the crater has been known to adopt this into its name – “Nordlingen Ries crater”. Nowadays though, it is more commonly referred to as just the Ries crater or even Ries on its own.
This asteroid impact was thought to have occurred between 14.3 and 14.5 million years ago. On the geological timescale this would place the event in the Miocene and in the Tertiary period. The deepest present depth, from the crater floor to the top of the rim is between 100m to 150m.
Another meteor impact crater (the Stenheim crater) has been discovered 42 km southwest of Ries crater and this is thought to have happened simultaneously by a phenomenon known as a binary asteroid. In terms of the sizes of the asteroids that crashed into these parts of the Earth’s crust, scientists now believe that the Stenheim crater was created by an asteroid measuring 150m across (leaving a 3.8 km crater), with the Ries crater being struck by an asteroid measuring a gargantuan 1.5 km in diameter.
As far as meteor impacts are concerned, both of these simultaneous events would have proved to be on a blood-curdling, extreme scale, with the Ries crater producing significant and destructive levels of heat and energy especially. At first, back in the 1960’s, the Ries crater was thought to have been the result of volcanic activity within the area. However, scientific tests carried out in the vicinity by Eugene Shoemaker and Edward Chao (both form the USA), proved that a meteor collision was far more likely.
In fact, these scientists went on to qualify this cause further after they discovered shocked quartz in local rocks and this proved that they had been subjected to intense pressure during the impact itself. The scientists also produced simulated models for the impact of the binary asteroid and they anticipated that the meteors would have been traveling to Earth at an amazing 20 km per second, just before they crashed into this unsuspecting part of Germany.
The Ries crater represents a larger example of the many impact craters that can be seen around the World. One thing is certain, as far as this event would have been concerned and that is that a 1.5 km asteroid, traveling at 20 km per second, would have had one of the most dramatic and catastrophic outcomes when it hit. There probably would not be enough nuclear energy in all of the bombs on this planet to recreate this extreme event, not that we would ever wish to try!
Christopher L. Shelby, M.D.