Explorer’s Guide to Impact Craters
Haughton Crater Tour
- Getting to Ries Crater
- Virtual Tour of Ries Crater
- Nördlingen
- Ries Tour – Stop 1
- Ries Tour – Stop 2
- Ries Tour – Stop 3
- Ries Tour – Stop 4
- Ries Tour – Stop 5
- Ries Tour – Stop 6
- Ries Tour – Stop 7
- Ries Tour – Stop 8
- Ries Tour – Stop 9
- Ries Tour – Stop 10
- Ries Tour – Stop 11
- Ries Tour – Stop 12
- Ries Tour – Stop 13
- Ries Tour – Stop 14
- Ries Tour – Stop 15
- Ries Tour – Stop 16
- Ries Tour – Stop 17
- Ries Tour – Stop 18
Stop 1 at Ries
Panorama of the Wengenhousen quarry
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
Location: Megablock zone just outside of the structure’s inner ring
Scale: Distance from left to right is approximately 100 meters
This is an excellent location to study polymict crystalline breccias in the megablock zone, the region of the faulted crater rim in the Ries structure. These impact breccias contain fragments from a variety of crystalline basement rocks (e.g., granite and gneiss) that have been uplifted by more than 500 meters, faulted and fractured. On top of these impact breccias, we see a layer of limestone, which was deposited in the lakebed that formed soon after impact. We’ll revisit these crater-lake sediments at later stops 5 and 6.
| Geologist Gordon Osinski talks about the geology of tyhe Wengenhousen quarry High resolution WMV (15.9 Mb) MP4 (7 Mb) Moderate resolution WMV (7.9 Mb) MP4 (7 Mb) Low resolution WMV (1.3 Mb) MP4 (7 Mb) |
Let’s spend some time looking for samples of shocked basement gneiss. If you’re lucky, you may also see some shatter cones. This is actually one of the very few places at the Ries where you may find shatter cones. To learn more about shocked basement, click here. To learn more about shatter cones, click here.
Close-up of polymict impact breccias
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
Location: Megablock zone just outside of the structure’s inner ring
Scale: Length of rock hammer is 35 centimeters