Holocene Meteorite Impacts in Bavaria - or rather NOT ?
Wednesday, 21. October 2009, 09:32:32
What is all the fuss about. I think that Wikipedia puts it quite well:
“Chiemgau impact crater refers to Lake Tüttensee, supposedly created by a Holocene meteorite impact near Lake Chiemsee and the foothills of the Alps in southeast Germany. The findings of a team of hobby-Archaeologists, calling themselves the CIRT (Chiemgau impact research team), has brought some controversy to the Geology and Archaeology community in Germany, but isn't accepted beyond the CIRT team today. The coordinates of Lake Tüttensee are 47°50′48″N 12°34′05″E / 47.846667°N 12.568056°E / 47.846667; 12.568056 (Lake Tüttensee). According to the hypothesis, the strewn field comprises more than 80 individual craters with diameters exceeding 3 m spread over an area of roughly 60 km x 30 km. After the discovery of the Chiemgau strewn field, much work has been done by the CIRT on the Lake Tüttensee crater and its surroundings comprising geological field work, geophysical measurements and petrographic analyses. The lake is 400 m in diameter and 17 m deep encircled by an 8 m high rim of approximately 500 m in diameter. According to radiocarbon data and archeological finds, the impact is dated to 500 BC by the CIRT.”
On October 16, 2004, the journal Astronomy published an online article entitled “Did the Celts see a comet impact in 200 B.C.?“. A special website is dedicated to the event.
A paper on The Chiemgau Impact: An Extraordinary Case Study for the Question of Holocene Meteorite Impacts and their Cultural Implication by Rappenglück et al. was published in Volume 409 of Cosmology Across Cultures (page 338) with the following abstract:
”Did in the Holocene meteorite impacts of a size capable to affect human cultures happen at all and – if the answer is “yes” – which cultural implications did they have? Since a few years this question is fiercely and con- troversially discussed. The Chiemgau meteorite impact event may provide an important contribution to the discussion. This event stroke south-east Germany very probably in the 1st millennium BC and left a field of about 80 craters. In comparison to other Holocene impacts it provides extraordinary data by the extension of its crater field, the size of the biggest crater, the variety of secondary effects, the direct embedding of the impact layer in an archaeological stratigraphy, and the comparably good dating. The recently known data are introduced and discussed with regard to the question of cultural effects of Holocene impacts.“
Further article: Rappenglück, B. and Rappenglück, M., 2006: Does the myth of Phaethon reflect an impact? – Revising the fall of Phaethon and considering a possible relation to the Chiemgau Impact. - Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 6/3 (2006), 101-109.
In Germany the discussion goes on - especially in the media. So far the evidence seems extremely doubtful, but that doesn’t necessarily make it less interesting. And at least it has raised local interest in geology.
WIDGETIZE