720-Foot-wide Meteorite Crater Found in a Winery in Southern France, Disproving a Scientific Opinion

Numerous meteorites have impacted Earth in the past, changing the course of its history. It is thought that meteorites brought a considerable portion of the water with them and could have also caused the demise of dinosaurs hundreds of millions of years ago.

Now, they have turned to a winery in southern France and found that the 'Domaine du Météore' winery is an actual impact crater. Meteorite craters still visible today are uncommon since most remnants of celestial bodies have long ago vanished.

Additional Meteorite Impact Crater

Phys.org reports that remnants of meteorites are uncommon today due to the plate tectonics that causes the movement and erosion in Earth's crust. Most of them have vanished long ago, so it is rare to find an impact crater.

The Earth Impact Database only shows 190 such impact craters on Earth, and only three were previously recognized in Western Europe. One is Rochechouart in Aquitaine, France, the Nördlinger Ries between the Swabian Alb and the Franconian Jura, and the Steinheim Basin in Germany. But the three are hardly recognizable due to millions of years of erosion.

Professor Frank Brenker of Goethe University Frankfurt, a geologist, and cosmochemist, believes the new meteorite crater will now be added to the list. While on vacation, he noticed one of the vineyards in the "Domaine du Météore" winery is in a circular depression of 220 meters in diameter and 30 meters deep.

The proprietors employ the scientific idea that it is the impact crater of a meteorite as a marketing ploy for their wine, which appears to have been long refuted. It was a concept offered in the 1950s but was rejected by renowned peers a few years later.

However, microanalysis of the area showed that its dark-colored layers might be shock veins produced by the rock's grinding and fracturing due to a meteorite impact. They also found evidence of breccia or angular rock debris that can occur after a meteorite's impact.

Confirming an Impact Crater in a French Winery

The following year, Brenker traveled to Southern France with his colleague Professor Andreas Junge and a group of students to explore the crater in depth.

According to Interesting Engineering, the team determined that the Earth's magnetic field is weaker near the crater than elsewhere. It is common for impact craters because the impact shatters or even melts the rock, contributing less to the Earth's magnetic field.

Using powerful magnets linked to a plate, the scientists discovered microscopic iron oxide spherules in the impact crater. Laboratory examination reveals that the spherules also included nickel-bearing iron and a core of minerals typically seen in crater settings. More so, several shock micro diamonds formed by the tremendous pressure during the meteorite's impact were identified.

Brenker said that microspheres form via abrasion of the meteorite in the atmosphere as the iron meteorite melts and reacts with oxygen in the air. All the evidence they found leads to the conclusion that a meteorite struck the winery.

Check out more news and information on Impact Crater in Science Times.