suevite
{{Short description|Rock consisting partly of melted material formed during an impact event}}
File:Suevit_Aufhausen.JPG impact crater (type locality)]]
File:NördlingenRathausTreppenportal.jpg, Germany]]
Suevite is a rock consisting partly of melted material, typically forming a breccia containing glass and crystal or lithic fragments, formed during an impact event. It forms part of a group of rock types and structures that are known as impactites.
Name
The word "suevite" is derived from "Suevia", Latin name of Swabia. The geologist Oliver Sachs was able to show that, over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, this type of rock was recognized as something special and, in 1919, was formally introduced into petrographic science by Adolf Sauer under the name "suevite".J. O. Sachs: Wie der Schwabenstein zu seinem Namen kam. In: W. Rosendahl, M. Schieber (Hrsg.): Der Stein der Schwaben. Natur- und Kulturgeschichte des Suevits. Band 4, Staatsanzeiger-Verlag, Stuttgart 2009.O. Sachs: Die Erforschung und Namensgebung von „Suevit“. In: Jahresberichte und Mitteilungen des Oberrheinischen Geologischen Vereins. N.F. 93, 2011, S. 77–88, doi:10.1127/jmogv/93/2011/77.
Formation
Suevite is thought to form in and around impact craters by the sintering of molten fragments together with unmelted clasts of the country rock. Rocks formed from more completely melted material found in the crater floor are known as tagamites. Suevite is distinct from the pseudotachylite in an impact structure as the latter is thought to have formed by frictional effects within the crater floor and below the crater during the initial compression phase of the impact and the subsequent formation of the central uplift.French, B.M. 1998. Traces of Catastrophe, A handbook of shock-metamorphic effects in terrestrial meteorite impact structures, Lunar and Planetary Institute [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/CB-954/chapter5.pdf Chapter 5]. (PDF) . Retrieved on 2011-06-22.
Occurrence
Suevite is one of the diagnostic rock-types for large impact structures. It has been described from many of the larger impact structures identified on earth.
- Nördlinger RiesBaier, J. 2009. [http://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/jber_oberrh/detail/91/76661/Zur_Herkunft_und_Bedeutung_der_Ries_Auswurfprodukt Zur Herkunft und Bedeutung der Ries-Auswurfprodukte für den Impakt-Mechanismus]. – Jber. Mitt. oberrhein. geol. Ver., N. F. 91, 9–29.Baier, J. 2012. [http://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/jber_oberrh/detail/94/76905/Die_Bedeutung_von_Wasser_wA_hrend_der_Suevit_Bildu Die Bedeutung von Wasser während der Suevit-Bildung (Ries-Impakt, Deutschland)]. - Jber. Mitt. oberrhein. geol. Ver., N. F. 94, 55–69.
- Sudbury Basin
- Popigai impact structure{{cite conference |last=Vishnevsky |first=S. A. |year=2003 |title=Suevite-tagamite megamixtures: an impact formation on the floor of the Popigai suevite strata |journal=Third International Conference on Large Meteorite Impacts, to be Held August 5–7, 2003, Nördlingen, Germany |number=4024 |bibcode=2003lmim.conf.4024V |pages=4024 |url=http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/largeimpacts2003/pdf/4024.pdf |access-date=2011-06-22 }}
- Chicxulub crater{{cite journal |last1=Claeys |first1=P. |last2=Heuschkel |first2=S. |last3=Lounejeva-Baturina |first3=E. |last4=Sanchez-Rubio |first4=G. |last5=Stöffler |first5=D. |year=2003 |title=The suevite of drill hole Yucatàn 6 in the Chicxulub impact crater |journal=Meteoritics & Planetary Science |doi=10.1111/j.1945-5100.2003.tb00315.x |doi-access=free |bibcode=2003M&PS...38.1299C |volume=38 |issue=9 |pages=1299–1317}}
- Kara crater
- Gardnos crater
File:Suevit_Logoisk.jpg|Suevite from an impact crater at Lahojsk, Belarus
File:Suevit_Rochechouart.jpg|Greenish suevite from an impact structure at Rochechouart, France
File:Suevit_Manicouagan.jpg|Suevite from the Manicouagan impact structure, Quebec, Canada
File:Suevite Aumühle.jpg|A thick layer of suevite (light gray) over blocks of Bunte Breccia (here mostly made up of reddish clay)
File:Sudbury suevite.jpg|Suevite breccia from Sudbury impact event. The largest clast in the lower left center is 9" across.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
{{Rock type}}
External links
{{Commonscat|Suevite}}
- [http://www.impact-structures.com/impact-rocks-impactites/the-suevite-page/ Page on Suevites from website on Impact Structures by Kord Ernstson & Fernando Claudin]
{{Impact cratering on Earth}}