The Tschebarkul 2013 super bolide, Tscheljabinsk, Russia – what do we currently know? 

Explosion and impact of the meteor: In the meantime the commotion has died down and has given way to more factual information and scientific relevance, and here on our website we would like to dedicate sufficient coverage of the current knowledge.

Such an event that we have now witnessed in Russia undoubtedly highlights also the Chiemgau impact and the related discussions about the impact parameters like the kind of impactor, fragmentation in the atmosphere and the dimensions of the strewn field.

 Source: Svetlana Korzhava; WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Important information is coming directly from Russia where as is well known good scientific relations of the CIRT exist, and we thank particularly Dr. Slava Gusiakov from the Holocene Impact Working Group for his personal communication.

Our article:  Continue reading →

Since a few years there is evidence of a dual meteorite crater at the bottom of Lake Chiemsee (Fig. 4) in the Chiemgau meteorite crater strewn field. The search for a suspected impact into the lake was originally based on reports of fishermen about unusual sharp-edged large stones at the lake bottom that had damaged their fishnets. Such stones are in fact foreign matter in the lake. A general echo sounder campaign, followed by a detailed survey veritably revealed a peculiar structure, likewise a foreign element in the lake, with all evidence of a rimmed doublet crater (Fig.1).

Fig. 1. The proposed meteorite doublet crater at the bottom of Lake Chiemsee from detailed sonar echo sounder measurements. Meter scale indicates water depth.

The similarity to meteoritic dual craters on Mars is striking (Fig. 2). From the Mars image it is evident that the doublet structure formed on synchronous impact of twin projectiles. Continue reading →

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Experimental hypervelocity impact crater generation and the formation of the Lake Tüttensee crater

Fig. 1. Snapshot of a hypervelocity impact into flour taken from a high-speed camera video.

Meteorite impact is a fascinating geologic process that for many geologists, however, has remained enigmatic. Therefore we are glad to present here on our website some results of experimental impacts that have been recorded by high speed cameras. This has been possible by a cooperation between the CIRT and Werner Mehl who is a world-wide known specialist for ballistics and high speed photography http://www.kurzzeit.com/eng/startseite.htm).

Fig. 2. Experimental hypervelocity impact crater produced by a projectile (as lying in the hand) in a target of flour. The angle of the impact trajectory was 30°. On CLICKING a video can be downloaded that shows the impact process recorded with a high speed camera. The outer ring-like fold of the foil is a side effect of the experimental set-up.

Details of the experiment are as follows: Continue reading →