contrasting with the “true world” of impact cratering and publications:
88th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society 2026 (LPI Contrib. No. 3162) 5189.pdf
High-resolution digital terrain models, Rayleigh-Taylor/Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, and hydrocode modeling: evidence of a Holocene low-altitude “touchdown” airburst impact event over Central Europe from the French border to the Czech Republic.
Kord Ernstson, Jens Poßekel and Allen West
Metsoc 2026. Click for enlarged full PDF Poster.
The Canadian impact database and the Freiburg University impact crater database
In the case of the well-known Canadian Earth Impact Database and the database of the University of Freiburg, where published proven impacts from Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic are simply ignored since decades, the question arises once again, as in the past, where a few members of a university take the incredible liberty to decide and make public what is right or wrong in science. Certainly, it can be meritorious to collect data in such a database (that’s why it’s called that) and make it available to the general public. However, this does not justify any kind of scientific evaluation, which can basically be denied to the databases. Unfortunately, this obviously small database groups under the leaders John Spray (Canada) and Thomas Kenkmann (University of Freiburg), have caused immeasurable damage in impact research. The negative main effect is that questionable up to wrong evaluations of this scientifically by nobody legitimized databases are taken over world-wide with impact publications however, as law into their work, and scientifically questionable statements are handed down by authors and article reviewers.
For the following two databases as well, the number of confirmed impacts comes to about 200. It seems that one database is simply copying data from the other, leaving us in the “early Middle Ages” of impact research. None of this reflects well on the Impact Cratering Committee of the MetSoc, and we wonder what purpose this committee actually serves.
Western University https://impact.uwo.ca/ https://impact.uwo.ca/impact-craters/map/ – 197 currently CONFIRMED impact craters. For heaven’s sake, who took the liberty of approving this selection?
The Barringer Crater Company- Interactive Earth Impact Database. – Quote from the page: “This incredible database of verified impact craters was initiated in 1955 …” Indeed, it’s an incredible impact database! WHO VERIFIED the selection?
The article by G.R. Osinski et al., with just under 200 citations, makes little difference, if any:
Earth-Science Reviews
Volume 232, September 2022, 104112
Impact Earth: A review of the terrestrial impact record.
