Was “Meteor Wine” true?Found a crater in a French vineyard

When a meteorite hits the earth’s surface,craterdepressions called “” are formed, but the number of them is small on the earth, and it is estimated that there are only about 190 existing ones. Given that the Moon has more than 9,000 craters on its surface, the larger Earth has fewer craters. Due to plate tectonics and weathering on the earth, craters and their traces disappear as they sink underground or are eroded by wind and rain. In fact, few craters on Earth are visible, and most have been confirmed by geological surveys and other evidence.

Three craters have been found so far in Western Europe. Rochechouart in France, Nördlinger Ries (Ries Crater) in Germany, and Steinheim Crater in Germany.

However, there are other places that have been claimed to be craters besides these three. One of them is in the south of FranceDomaine du Meteor (Domaine du Météore)”. This land, which has vineyards for wine, is a basin with a diameter of about 220m and a depth of about 30m. And as the name Météore (meteor in French) suggests, in the 1950s it was claimed that the crater was actually formed by a meteorite impact.

However, this claim was dismissed a few years later. The reason is that no rims or magnetic anomalies, which are typical features of craters, were found. For many years, Domaine du Meteor was not scientifically recognized as a crater, but was claimed to be a crater for wine marketing.

Meanwhile, Mr. Frank Brenker of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, who visited Domaine du Meteor during his vacation, learned that this place was a crater caused by a meteorite impact, and at the same time he was skeptical of the crater theory. I realized that the process of forming basin topography that I deny is not actually geologically convincing.

So when Brenker examined rock samples, he found evidence suggesting a meteorite impact. For example, rocks called ‘crystalline schist’ are usually only rich in mica, but in the crystalline schist at Domaine du Météol, we found veins formed by crushing of the rock. In addition, the breccia, which consisted of various large and small rock fragments that hardened like concrete, was very similar to other crater breccias, which were formed by solidifying rock that had been shattered by meteorite impacts.

[▲ Figure 2: Metal globules found in this research. Composed of iron and nickel, various minerals have been found that show evidence of a meteorite impact, including tiny diamonds and impact quartz (Credit: Frank Brenker, Goethe University Frankfurt)]

In order to obtain further evidence, Brenker, together with his colleague Andreas Junge and his students, visited the Domaine du Méteor again and conducted additional research. As a result, Brenker and colleagues found that the geomagnetic field in this area is slightly weaker than in surrounding areas. This is a typical magnetic anomaly seen in craters, but it was overlooked in studies in the 1950s because the difference with the surrounding area was too small.

Also found in the ground are many small spheres of iron oxide that are attracted to magnets. The spheres have an average diameter of 0.2mm and a maximum diameter of 1mm. The main component is an alloy of iron and nickel, which is a typical component of meteorites (meteorites with a large amount of metal), and such metal globules are known to occur even in small craters.

In addition, we found minerals such as extremely small diamonds that form in the high-temperature environment associated with meteorite impacts, and evidence that would be unlikely outside of meteorite impacts indicating that quartz had been severely impacted. These evidences overturn conventional judgments,Domaine du Meteor is actually a crater formed by a meteorite impactIt turns out.

In Domaine du Meteor, two rivers flow north and south through the basin, and it is presumed that the edge has disappeared due to erosion. The basin that remains today is probably not the entire crater, but it is unknown what its original diameter was.

Although this discovery is weak to claim that it is a crater caused by a meteorite impact with only one piece of evidence, it is difficult to think that only a meteorite impact can explain all the evidence at the same time. This achievement, triggered by Mr. Brenker’s visit, makes Domaine du Meteor more likely to be not just a marketing brand, but a real Crater vineyard.

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Text: Riri Ayae