Nördlinger Ries

The Nördlinger Ries is an impact crater caused by a meteorite.J. Baier: Geohistorische Bemerkungen zur Suevit-Forschung (Ries-Impakt). Geohistorische Blätter,  31(1/2), Berlin 2020. It is a large circular depression in western Bavaria and eastern Baden-Württemberg. 

It is north of the Danube in the district of Donau-Ries. The city of Nördlingen is in the depression, about  south-west of its centre.

The depression is a meteorite impact crater formed 14.808 ± 0.038 million years ago in the Miocene. The crater is most commonly referred to simply as Ries crater or the Ries. 

The original crater rim had an estimated diameter of . The present floor of the depression is about  below the eroded remains of the rim.

It was originally assumed that the Ries was of volcanic origin. In 1960 Eugene Shoemaker and Edward C.T. Chao showed that the depression was caused by meteorite impact.

Stone buildings in Nördlingen contain millions of tiny diamonds, all less than  across. The impact that caused the Nördlinger Ries crater created an estimated  of them when it hit a local graphite deposit. Stone from this area was quarried and used for the local buildings.

 References 

Category:Geography of Bavaria
Category:Impact craters
Category:Miocene
Category:Geography of Baden-Württemberg