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 12 at Ries
Small wooded hill in Wennenberg, north of Alerheim
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
Location: Inner ring of the Ries structure
Polymict crystalline impact breccia of the inner ring
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
Location: Inner ring of Ries structure
Scale: Length of rock hammer is 35 centimeters
Wennenberg is located within the “inner ring” of the Ries structure. It is composed of fractured and faulted crystalline rocks uplifted from several hundreds of meters in depth, possibly more than 1 kilometer. This represents part of the central uplift at the Ries structure. At this locality, the crystalline rocks have been completely fractured and broken up to form polymict impact breccia, an impact breccia composed of different types of crystalline rock. To learn more about impact breccias, click here.
Panorama looking south of Wennenberg
Photo: G. Osinski, University of Western Ontario
Location: Inner ring of Ries structure
Scale: Distance to the hills in the far background is approximately 10 kilometers