Suevite is a rock consisting partly of melted material, typically forming a

breccia Breccia ( , ; ) is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or Rock (geology), rocks cementation (geology), cemented together by a fine-grained matrix (geology), matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language ...

containing

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

and

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

or lithic fragments, formed during an

impact Impact may refer to: * Impact (mechanics), a large force or mechanical shock over a short period of time * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Imp ...

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 Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name of

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

. 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.

Formation

Suevite is thought to form in and around impact craters by the

sintering Sintering or frittage is the process of compacting and forming a solid mass of material by pressure or heat without melting it to the point of liquefaction. Sintering happens as part of a manufacturing process used with metals, ceramics, plas ...

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.

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 Ries The Nördlinger Ries is an impact crater and large circular depression in western Bavaria and eastern Baden-Württemberg. It is located north of the Danube in the district of Donau-Ries. The city of Nördlingen is located within the depression ...

Sudbury Basin The Sudbury Basin (), also known as Sudbury Structure or the Sudbury Nickel Irruptive, is a major geology, geological structure in Ontario, Canada. It is among the oldest- and largest-known List of impact structures on Earth, impact structures ...

Popigai impact structure The Popigai impact structure is the eroded remnant of an impact crater in northern Siberia, Russia. It is tied with the Acraman impact structure as the fourth largest verified impact structure on Earth. A large bolide impact created the c ...

Chicxulub crater The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore, but the crater is named after the onshore community of Chicxulub Pueblo (not the larger coastal town of Chicxulub Puerto). I ...

* Kara crater * Gardnos crater File:Suevit_Logoisk.jpg, Suevite from an impact crater at Lahojsk,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

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.

References

External links

Page on Suevites from website on Impact Structures by Kord Ernstson & Fernando Claudin
{{Impact cratering on Earth Impact event minerals

Name

Formation

Occurrence

See also

References

External links