The Chiemgau Impact

Introduction

On October 16, 2004, the journal Astronomy published an online article entitled “Did the Celts see a comet impact in 200 B.C.?“, and at the same time an extensive report on the Chiemgau impact was presented here. Meanwhile, a host of new findings, results and insights exist, and, therefore, we decided to give a completely new shape to the website.

The menu of the column to the left comprises the separate subjects as they appear according to the current state of knowledge. In the menu of the top row, these subjects are again found, however pointing to new aspects and results that, if confirmed later, will move to the left column. In the top menu, also the current discussion on the Chiemgau impact is included.

In the menu column to the right you may click on additional topics, and you may be linked to the page introducing the members of the Chiemgau Impact Research Team that is responsible of this website. Below, the "Weekly Image" being regularly replaced is shown.

The following contributions (oral, poster) of the Chiemgau Impact Research Team (CIRT) were submitted and have been accepted for presentation:

Michael A. Rappenglück & Kord Ernstson: The Chiemgau crater strewn field (Southeast Bavaria, Germany): Evidence of a Holocene large impact event

International Conference "100 years since Tunguska phenomenon: Past, present and future". - June 26 - 28, 2008, Moscow (Russia)

Kord Ernstson & Michael A. Rappenglück: The Chiemgau crater strewn field: Evidence of a Holocene large impact event in Southeast Bavaria, Germany

International Scientific Conference "100 years of the Tunguska event". - June 30 - July 6, 2008, Krasnoyarsk (Russia)

Barbara Rappenglück & Michael A. Rappenglück (for the Chiemgau Impact Research Team): The fall of Phaethon:  Is this a geomyth reflecting an impact in Bavaria during the Celtic period?

33rd International Geological Congress. Session: Myth and Geology. - August 5 - 14, 2008, Oslo (Norway)

Chiemgau Impact Research Team (CIRT): The Chiemgau Impact: An extraordinary case-study for the question of Holocene impacts and their cultural implications

SEAC (Société Européenne pour l'astronomie dans la culture) meeting (XVIth). - September 8-12, 2008, Granada (Spain)

The Holocene Tüttensee meteorite impact crater in southeast Germany

Abstract | Article

Reply

to the press release of the Naturkundemuseum (Museum of Natural History), Berlin (Dr. Gesine Steiner) - November 21, 2006

Now published

Barbara and Michael Rappenglück (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, Proceedings of the International Conference on Archaeoastronomy, SEAC 14th 2006, "Ancient watching of cosmic space and observation of astronomical phenomena", Vol. 6, No. 3 (2006), 101-109.

Abstract. - In Greek mythology there exists one story that has repeatedly been interpreted to describe the fall of a celestial body: the story of Phaethon, who undertakes a disastrous drive with the sun-chariot of his father Helios. First, the article presents the arguments given by ancient authors for interpreting this story as the reflection of a natural phenomenon. Then details given in the old descriptions of Phaethon’s fall are compared with nowadays knowledge of impact phenomena. Furthermore the texts are examined for clues to the time and the location of the hypothesised impact. These considerations substantiate the suggestion that the myth of Phaethon reflects a concrete strike of a meteorite, the so-called Chiemgau Impact. That impact struck the south-east of Bavaria/Germany at some time during the Celtic period and left an extended crater-strewnfield of about 100 craters. A conspicuous intersection between the tradition of the Phaethon-story and the up to now known time-frame for the Chiemgau Impact gives new clues for dating the Chiemgau Impact to the time between 600 and 428 BC.

Articles on Lake Tüttensee proposed meteorite impact crater on www.chiemgau-impact.com

Shock effects (shock metamorphism) in rocks from the impact layer at Lake Tüttensee (ejecta, Bunte breccia). In German with English abstract and Figure captions.   pdf

The Tüttensee Bunte breccia. In German with English abstract and Figure captions.   pdf

New evidence of an impact origin for Lake Tüttensee (Chiemgau impact event): An impact layer in near Lake test pits. In German with English abstract and Figure captions.  pdf  Part 1       pdf  Part 2

A gravity survey near Grabenstätt: Impact hypothesis for the Tüttensee crater (Chiemgau impact event) strengthened. In German with English abstract and Figure captions.  article

Weekly image

Carbon spherules

One of the most intriguing features in the Chiemgau impact strewn field is the abundant occurrence of carbon spherules having diameters of the order of millimeters (Fig. 1). Originally reported  for the northern part of the strewn field (Rösler et al. (2005): Diamonds in carbon spherules - evidence for a cosmic impact? Meteoritics and Planetary Science, 40, p. A129; Hofmann et al. (2006): Peculiar magnetic signature of Fe-silicide phases and diamond/fullerene containing carbon spherules. - Travaux Géophysiques, XXVII, and others), these spherules were meanwhile found widespread over Europe and have now been described in more detail by Yang et al., 2008: Abstract).

Fig. 1. Carbon spherules from the Lake Tüttensee crater area, Chiemgau impact event. The diameter of the spherules is of the order of millimeters.

The authors emphazise that this kind of spherules that according to their knowledge has not been described in the literature before, lack any known anthropogenic or biogenetic source. A relation to meteorite impact is considered possible implying a local or cosmic carbon source.

In the course of our field work in the Chiemgau impact area we found the carbon spherules also widespread in the most southerly part of the crater strewn field. The spherules are enriched at the Stöttham impact-archeological excavation site (see the last Weekly image in the Archives) and around the Lake Tüttensee crater (Fig. 1). At both the Stöttham and Tüttensee sites, the carbon spherules occur together with impact-affected rocks and impact glass. Therefore, our observations strengthen the idea of an impact origin supplying one more vital component for the postulated extensive strewnfield ellipse.