Suevite

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".^[1]^[2]

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.^[3]

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.

Suevite from an impact crater at Lahojsk, Belarus
Greenish suevite from an impact structure at Rochechouart, France
Suevite from the Manicouagan impact structure, Quebec, Canada
A thick layer of suevite (light gray) over blocks of Bunte Breccia (here mostly made up of reddish clay)
Suevite breccia from Sudbury impact event. The largest clast in the lower left center is 9" across.

References

^ 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.
^ French, B.M. 1998. Traces of Catastrophe, A handbook of shock-metamorphic effects in terrestrial meteorite impact structures, Lunar and Planetary Institute Chapter 5. (PDF) . Retrieved on 2011-06-22.
^ Baier, J. 2009. Zur Herkunft und Bedeutung der Ries-Auswurfprodukte für den Impakt-Mechanismus. – Jber. Mitt. oberrhein. geol. Ver., N. F. 91, 9–29.
^ Baier, J. 2012. Die Bedeutung von Wasser während der Suevit-Bildung (Ries-Impakt, Deutschland). - Jber. Mitt. oberrhein. geol. Ver., N. F. 94, 55–69.
^ Vishnevsky, S. A. (2003). Suevite-tagamite megamixtures: an impact formation on the floor of the Popigai suevite strata (PDF). Third International Conference on Large Meteorite Impacts, to be Held August 5–7, 2003, Nördlingen, Germany. No. 4024. p. 4024. Bibcode:2003lmim.conf.4024V. Retrieved 2011-06-22.
^ Claeys, P.; Heuschkel, S.; Lounejeva-Baturina, E.; Sanchez-Rubio, G.; Stöffler, D. (2003). "The suevite of drill hole Yucatàn 6 in the Chicxulub impact crater". Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 38 (9): 1299–1317. Bibcode:2003M&PS...38.1299C. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2003.tb00315.x.

External links

Page on Suevites from website on Impact Structures by Kord Ernstson & Fernando Claudin

[Sachs_2009-1] 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.

[2] 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.

[3] French, B.M. 1998. Traces of Catastrophe, A handbook of shock-metamorphic effects in terrestrial meteorite impact structures, Lunar and Planetary Institute Chapter 5. (PDF) . Retrieved on 2011-06-22.

[4] Baier, J. 2009. Zur Herkunft und Bedeutung der Ries-Auswurfprodukte für den Impakt-Mechanismus. – Jber. Mitt. oberrhein. geol. Ver., N. F. 91, 9–29.

[5] Baier, J. 2012. Die Bedeutung von Wasser während der Suevit-Bildung (Ries-Impakt, Deutschland). - Jber. Mitt. oberrhein. geol. Ver., N. F. 94, 55–69.

[6] Vishnevsky, S. A. (2003). Suevite-tagamite megamixtures: an impact formation on the floor of the Popigai suevite strata (PDF). Third International Conference on Large Meteorite Impacts, to be Held August 5–7, 2003, Nördlingen, Germany. No. 4024. p. 4024. Bibcode:2003lmim.conf.4024V. Retrieved 2011-06-22.

[7] Claeys, P.; Heuschkel, S.; Lounejeva-Baturina, E.; Sanchez-Rubio, G.; Stöffler, D. (2003). "The suevite of drill hole Yucatàn 6 in the Chicxulub impact crater". Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 38 (9): 1299–1317. Bibcode:2003M&PS...38.1299C. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2003.tb00315.x.

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