Nordlingen Impact Crater

Recently this feature has been identified as a 14 million year old meteor impact crater. Apparently the local building stones have tiny embedded diamonds formed by the impact.

Approximately 40 km west-south-west the town of Steinheim is also built in another crater, probably formed by a binary impact.


Nordlingen Impact Crater.kmz (1.05 KB)

Sept 9, 2015 17:10:59 GMT larryc1 said:

Recently this feature has been identified […]

The Nördlinger Ries is since long time well known as the impact of a meteor. The same applies for the Steinheimer Becken.

The area is worth a visit: beautiful landscape, an interesting museum about the impact, Nördlingen itself a cosy old town and for railway enthusiasts (like me) the Bavarian Railway Museum.