The suevite page

According to the IUGS Subcommission on the Systematics of Metamorphic Rocks, Study Group for Impactites, a suevite or suevite breccia is a polymict impact breccia with clastic matrix and mineral clasts in various stages of shock metamorphism including cogenetic impact melt particles which are in a glassy or crystallized state.

Originally, suevite was the name of a melt breccia in the Ries crater and derived from the province of Swabia in southern Germany, and such means „Swabian stone“. For decades, the Ries crater suevite was considered a peculiar volcanic breccia and unique in the world. Both the volcanic origin and the uniqueness had to be abondoned when the Ries suevite was shown to be a strongly shocked impactite and comparable rocks were found in many other impact structures worldwide.

On this page, we show and describe suevites from different impact structures (Ries, Rochechouart, Dellen, Sääksjärvi, Lappajärvi, Wanapitei) with special emphasis on the suevites from the Azuara and Rubielos de la Cérida impact structures (Spain).