The impact of cosmic bodies to produce large impact craters is related with the propagation of seismic waves which may release energies comparable to strongest earthquakes, and even beyond that. It is obvious that similar processes and well-known drastic deformations may result in the ground and at the earth’s surface.

In this context, W. Alvarez and coauthors (Alvarez W., Staley E., O’Connor D., Chan M.A., Synsedimentary deformation in the Jurassic of south-eastern Utah, a case of impact shaking? Geology, 1998, 26, 579-582) went into an interesting question when they related characteristic deformations in exposed older geological layers with a possible meteorite impact in a past geologic epoch thus pointing to the Upheaval Dome impact structure (Utah, USA) and distant rock liquefaction phenomena. Rock liquefaction is an established process during strong earthquakes which can lead to enormous modifications of the earth’s surface and catastrophic damage when the seismic shock affects water-saturated uncemented rocks. For the study of earlier earthquakes in the geologic past (paleoseismicity), observations in older layers may be important, and Alvarez had now pointed to the possibility that fossil sedimentary liquefaction features need not necessarily have originated from earthquakes but may be related with former large impact events. A critical debate, however, submitted that in the special case such a context of the relatively small 6 km-diameter Upheaval Dome impact structure and the geological outcrop some 260 km apart must be questioned.

Now for the first time, a compelling direct evidence for the relation of a large meteorite impact with distinct rock liquefaction features has been established. The recently printed article

Ernstson, K., Mayer W., Neumair, A., and Sudhaus, D. (2011): The sinkhole enigma in the alpine foreland, Southeast Germany: Evidence of impact-induced rock liquefaction processes. – Cent. Eur. J. Geosci., 3(4), 385-397.  DOI: 10.2478/s13533-011-0038-y 

describes the first geologic and geophysical investigations of the so-called “Thunderhole” (in German: Donnerloch) phenomenon in the region of the town of Kienberg north of Lake Chiemsee in Southeast Bavaria (Germany).

Fig. 1. A freshly caved-in and a somewhat older thunderhole near the town of Kienberg north of Lake Chiemsee. Strikingly different from customary and well known sink holes e.g. in karst areas, the thunderholes exhibit a highly energetic rock mass transport from the bottom up before collapse, which is typical for liquefaction processes. 

The authors conclude that the innumerable enigmatic sudden sinkhole cave-ins having happened in living memory originate from late and even today acting processes of an earlier shock-induced underground rock liquefaction known from strong earthquake shocks. The geologically prominent underground structures that have now been uncovered are considered the result of impact shocks in the course of the formation of the Chiemgau meteorite crater strewn field (Chiemgau impact), and a comparison is made with the famous widespread and strong rock liquefaction features in the large region affected by the catastrophic 1811/1812 New Madrid (Missouri) earthquake series.

More detailed information about the geophysical measurements (resistivity and induced polarization (IP) soundings) of the thunderhole structures was given in a presentation at the 2011 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco:

Kord Ernstson & Andreas Neumair: Geoelectric Complex Resistivity Measurements of Soil Liquefaction Features in Quaternary Sediments of the Alpine Foreland, Germany. – AGU Fall  Meeting, December 5-9, 2011, NS23A-1555.

The poster may be clicked here.

Fig. 2. From the geophysical investigation of the impact-induced thunderholes in the Chiemgau impact event. The geoelectrical measurements of induced polarization on a profile across an active depression as a precursor of a future thunderhole reveal perfectly clear the intrusion paths bottom up as a document of impact liquefaction.

Breccia dikes (dike breccias) are a prominent feature in impact structures, and they have told us a good many about the processes of impact cratering. Among the yet known roughly 200 terrestrial impact structures, Azuara and Rubielos de la Cérida are providing the probably by far best insight into these fascinating geological configurations concerning abundance, exposure accessibility, and diversity with regard to geometry, dimensions and material (also see breccia/dikes; http://www.impact-structures.com/spain; rubielos-breccia-dikes). Recent extensive construction works (storage reservoir, freeway, railroad) near Lechago, Calamocha (CAL; see Fig. 1, red circle) have yielded quite a few nice geological exposures once more documenting the almost everywhere existing impact signature thus underlining that construction work in the large impact region of the Azuara and Rubielos de la Cérida structures may be a hard undertaking – as was impressively shown when the new Autovía freeway line had to cut through the strongly destroyed Paleozoic of the Iberian Chain in the northern rim zone of the Azuara impact structure between Daroca and Cariñena (click here http://www.impact-structures.com/impact-spain/the-azuara-impact-structure/the-2005-autovia-mudejar-geological-exposures/ “The 2005 Autovía Mudéjar geological exposures”).

Below we show images of some newly exposed impact breccia dikes near Lechago exhibiting their characteristic properties and, for comparison, similar dikes and dike systems from the companion Azuara impact structure (location in Fig. 1).

Focusing here on breccia dikes in Paleozoic silicate rocks bears in mind the frequent claim of some Spanish geologists, especially from the Zaragoza university, that the impact breccia dikes are all karst phenomena. Their confusion of breccia dikes with karst features, however, meets some difficulties in the case of silicate siltstones. Also fault breccias can clearly be excluded since these dikes are filled with allochthonous material as is typical for impact-induced highly energetic injection processes.

Fig. 1. Location map.

Fig. 2. Thick impact breccia dike cutting through Paleozoic siltstones at the new storage reservoir near Lechago (in the red circle of Fig. 1)

Fig. 3. For comparison: impact breccia dike in Paleozoic siltstones; road to Santuario de la Virgen de Herrera (1 in Fig. 1). Azuara impact structure.

Fig. 4. For comparison: thick impact breccia dikes cutting roughly perpendicular through the bedding of the Paleozoic siltstones. Autovía Mudéjar in course of construction; near Cariñena (2 in Fig. 1). Azuara impact structure.

Fig. 5. Large system of impact breccia dikes in Paleozoic siltstones at the new storage reservoir near Lechago. Note that the dominant set of dikes is cutting sharply across the bedding (see Fig. 6). In the top: Unfolded post-impact Tertiary sediments.

Fig. 6. Segment of the wall in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7. For comparison: System of impact breccia dikes cutting sharply through Paleozoic silicate rocks. Autovía Mudéjar in course of construction; near Cariñena (2 in Fig. 2). Azuara impact structure.