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Ries Tour Start at Nördlingen

St. George's Church, Nördlingen
St. George's Church, Nördlingen
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
 Location: Town of Nördlingen
Scale: Tower height is approximately 90 meters

St. George's Church , Nördlingen, with it's distinctive Daniel Tower , was completed in 1505. It's made almost entirely from suevite , a distinctive type of impact breccia that was first recognized at the Ries structure. It takes its name from the Roman name for this region of Bavaria : "Provincia Suevia". Suevite is an impact breccia that contains fragments and patches of impact glass. We'll be seeing a lot of this rock on our tour.

Let's climb up Daniel's Tower for a view of the town!

Geologist Gordon Osinski climbs up to the top of Daniel Tower

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Panoramic view of Nördlingen from the top of Daniel Tower
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
Location: Town of Nördlingen, along the margin of the structure's "inner ring"
Scale: Distance is several hundreds of meters from left to right across the picture

In the far distance you can see the wooded hills that represent the crater rim of the Ries structure.

Close-up of the top of Daniel Tower
Close-up of the top of Daniel Tower
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
Location: Town of Nördlingen, along the margin of the structure's "inner ring"
Scale: Height of the balcony wall to the left is 1 meter

All the small black patches in the blocks of suevite are impact glasses.

Medieval fortification wall around Nördlingen
Medieval fortification wall around Nördlingen
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
 Location: Town of Nördlingen, along the margin of the structure's "inner ring"
Scale: Height of the fortification wall is 10 meters

This is the only town in Germany where you can walk all the way around the medieval fortification ring. Completed in the 14th century, it is made almost entirely of suevite!

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