Scientific research has found there was a meteorite impact in Nördlingen about 15 million years ago that formed a crater
A couple years ago we did a four day trip down the Romantic Road and stopped in Nördlingen. Besides Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl, it is one of the the most attractive towns in the central part of the Romantic road
The town of Nördlingen is the largest town in the Swabian district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria. It shares the distinction of being one of the only remaining walled medieval towns in Germany, including the neighbors to the north Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl. Nördlingen, however, is far less crowded than the other two, and offers an additional attraction of geological interest.
The town of Nördlingen is built on an impact crater. The depression is interpreted as a meteorite impact crater that formed about 15 million years ago through scientific research.
The crater is most commonly referred to simply as the Ries crater or “Ries”. This event in Nördlingen became known worldwide. The original crater rim had an estimated diameter of 24 kilometers (15 mi). The present floor of the depression is about 100 to 150 m (330 to 490 ft) below the eroded remains of the rim
The Wörnitz and the Eger river flow near and across the Ries, the former flows 30 kilometers southeast into the Danube.
It first was assumed the Ries was of volcanic origin. Eugene Shoemaker and Edward C. T. Chao, who did the research, showed in 1960 that the depression was caused by meteorite impact. The key evidence was the presence of coesite rock, which are un-metamorphosed rocks, that can only be formed by the shock pressures associated with meteorite impact.
The Meteorite impact
The two researchers were encouraged to look further, and found that the Nördlingen St. George’s church was built of locally derived suevite. He was then convinced that the suevite was formed from mesozoic sediments shocked by the bolide impact.
The St. Georg church was completed in 1505 after almost 80 years of construction. Much of the church is made of the asteroid suevite rock.
More impressions of Nördlingen
After some more sightseeing, we drove about 30 minutes to the town of Dinkelsbühl to have dinner.
