Steinheim - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names Steinheimer Becken; Steinheim Basin
Local Language
Coordinates 48° 41' 13" N; 10° 3' 50" E
Notes
  1. At Albuch, Landkreis Heidenheim, 40 km S of the Ries crater, southern Germany.
Country Germany
Region Badan-Württemberg
Date Confirmed 1967
Notes
  1. Confirmed by discovery of abundant shatter cones (Engelhardt et al., 1967).
Buried? No
Notes
  1. Quaternary deposits and Tertiary lake sediments cover the breccia lens in the annular depression (Reiff, 1977).
Drilled? Yes
Notes
  1. 10 boreholes, 7 on profile of Reiff (1977) penetrate into the annular depression, Quaternary and Tertiary sediments, allogenic breccia and into the calcareous beds uplifted in the centre.
Target Type Sedimentary
Notes
  1. Jurassic limestone, marlstone, claystone and sandstone; Triassic limestone, sandstone and claystone and Permian limestone and sandstone (Reiff, 1977).
Sub-Type Carbonate, Claystone, Limestone, Marl, Sandstone
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) Unknown
Age (Ma) ~14.8
Notes :
  1. ~14.8 Ma based on apparent synchronicity with the Ries impact event. The Ries age (14.808 ± 0.038 Ma) was obtained by 40Ar/39Ar on moldavite tekites (Schmeider et al., 2018).

Method :
  1. Stratigraphy
Impactor Type Unknown

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
3
  1. Most of the ejecta removed. The rim is partially preserved and the crater-fill products remain intact (Reiff, 1977).
Final Rim Diameter
3.8 km
Apparent Rim Diameter
Unknown
  1. Diameter is 3.8 km in its largest dimension and 3.1 km in its smallest dimension, averaging to 3.4 km (Reiff, 1977). The pre-eroded crater size is estimated to be 3.8 km (Stoffler et al. 2002).
Rim Reliability Index
1
  1. Consists of a flat-floored, roundish basin. In the centre stands a hill with a diameter of 900 m and a height of about 50 m. The asymmetrical central uplift is ~600–800 m wide and 50 m high (Buchner and Schmieder, 2010; Ernstson, 1984). Jurassic and Triassic strata were uplifted at least 350 m, and possibly as much as 400 m (Buchner and Schmieder, 2010). Unclear as to how much erosion has affected the crater-fill impactites and central uplift.
Crater Morphology
Complex
Central Uplift Diameter
0.9km
Central Uplift Height
50 m
Uplift Reliability Index
2
Structural Uplift
380 m
Thickness of Seds
Target Age
Palaeozoic Mesozoic
Marine
No
Impactor Type
Other Shock Metamorphism
No
Shatter Cones
Yes
  1. Shatter cones in Jurassic limestone (Zimmermann, 1970) (Roddy, 1977) (Reiff and Groschopf, 1979) and sandstone, up to 25 cm. Shatter cones abundant; they are found in the limestone fragments of the jumbled formations of the central hill and they also occur in rocks ranging down to the lowest Middle Jurassic (Bucher, 1963). See (Kranz, 1924, page 56).
Planar Fractures
No
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. PDF in quartz grains (Reiff and Groschopf, 1979).
Diaplectic Glass
No
Coesite
No
Stisovite
No
Crater Fill
LB, MB
  1. Small silicate melt fragments (up to millimetres in size) have been observed in breccias (MB) (Buchner and Schmieder, 2013). Melted sandstones (Buchner and Schmieder, 2010).
Proximal Ejecta
Distal Ejecta
Dykes
Volume of Melt
Depth of Melting

References

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K Ernstson (1984) A gravity-derived model for the Steinhem impact crater, Geologische Rundschau 73(2), p. 483-498, url, doi:10.1007/BF01824969

R Skala, J Rohovec (1998) Magic-angle-spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of shocked limestones from the Steinheim crater., Meteorics & Planetary Science 33(4, S), p. A146-A147, url

T Tuetken, T W Vennemann, H Janz, E P J Heimann (2006) Palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate of the Middle Miocene lake in the Steinheim basin, SW Germany: A reconstruction from C, O, and Sr isotopes of fossil remains, Paleography Paleoclimatology Paleoecology 241(3-4), p. 457-491, url, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.04.007

M Ardit, A M Fioretti, G Molin, E Ramous, U C Bauer (2006) Determination of the origin of unusual glass with metallic spherule inclusions found in the area between Inzingkofen and Sigmaringen (Bavaria, Germany), South-West of the Steinheim-Ries craters, Periodico di Mineralogia 75(2-3), p. 11-24, url

E Buchner, M Schmieder (2009) The Steinheim suevite, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 44, SUPPL., p. Abstract 5072, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR

E Buchner, M Schmieder (2010) New insights into the Steinheim central uplift; Part I, Shatter cones in claystone lithologies ("Opalinuston", Middle Jurassic), Meteoritics & Planetary Science 45, SUPPL., p. 1, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url, doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2010.01051.x

E Bucher, M Schmieder (2010) Steinheim suevite-A first report of melt-bearing impactites from the Steinheim Basin (SW Germany), Meteoritics & Planetary Science 45(7), p. 1093-1107, url, doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2010.01073.x

E Buchner, M Schmieder (2013) Melt-bearing (suevitic) impactites from the Steinheim Basin, SW Germany, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Geowissenschaften 164(3), p. 471-490, doi:10.1127/1860-1804/2013/0006

M Schmieder, E Buchner (2013) Shatter cones in Opalinuston concretions of the Steinheim Basin (SW Germany), Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Geowissenschaften 164(3), p. 503-513, url, doi:10.1127/1860-1804/2013/0021

D Anders, E Buchner, M Schmieder, P Kegler (2013) Varieties of melt-lithologies in the impactites of the Steinheim Basin (SW-Germany), Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Geowissenschaften 164(3), p. 491-501, url, doi:10.1127/1860-1804/2013/0029

E Buchner, M Schmieder (2013) The Ries-Steinheim event - impact into a Miocene swampy lakescape, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Geowissenschaften 164(3), p. 459-470, url, doi:10.1127/1860-1804/2013/0020

M Schmieder, M Trieloff, W H Schwarz, E Buchner, F Jourdan (2014) Supportive comment on: “Morphology and population of binary asteroid impact craters”, by K. Miljković, G.S. Collins, S. Mannick and P.A. Bland [Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 363 (2013) 121–132] – An updated assessment, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 405, p. 281-284, Elsevier B.V., url, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2013.08.047

E Buchner, M Schmieder (2015) The Steinheim Basin impact crater (SW-Germany) - Where are the ejecta?, Icarus 250, p. 529-543, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.12.026

E Buchner, M Schmieder (2018) Rare metals on shatter cone surfaces from the Steinheim Basin (SW Germany) – remnants of the impacting body?, Geological Magazine 155(6), p. 1205-1229, url, doi:10.1017/S0016756816001357

E Buchner (2018) An approach towards the projectile trajectory during the oblique Steinheim meteorite impact by the interpretation of structural crater features and the distribution of shatter cones, Geological Magazine 155(1), p. 193-202, url, doi:10.1017/S0016756817000711

S Staffieri, A Coletta, M L Battagliere, M Virelli (2019) Steinheim, Germany, Encyclopedic Atlas of Terrestrial Impact Craters, p. 427-428, Springer, Cham, url, doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05451-9_115

Ahmed El Goresy, Gerhard Schmidt (2019) Discussion of 'Rare metals on shatter cone surfaces from the Steinheim Basin (SW Germany)-remnants of the impacting body?', Geological Magazine 156(9), p. 1639-1640, Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/S001675681800064X

E Buchner, V J Sach, M Schmieder (2020) The Ries-Steinheim crater pair and two major earthquakes - New discoveries challening the double-impact theory, Research Square, p. 1-24, url