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ERNSTSON CLAUDIN IMPACT STRUCTURES –
METEORITE CRATERS
Research on impact geology, geophysics, petrology,
and impact cratering
New Article: Pingos, Mardels and
Meteorite Impact Craters
Pingos and mardels: high-resolution digital terrain
models suggest meteorite impact craters in addition to
permafrost, sinkhole and dead-ice formation models.
Kord Ernstson1 and Jens Poßekel2
Abstract. – With the meanwhile widely available data of Digital Terrain
Models (DTM) with extremely high resolution of the bare terrain surface,
vertically and horizontally, down to the decimeter and centimeter range
and freed from buildings and any vegetation, completely new possibilities
have opened up in the geosciences, which entail paradigm shifts in
established ideas and textbook wisdom. Such a paradigm shift is especially
indicated in ice age research and more generally in the still open
discussion of the formation of smaller terrain forms in the manner of
general and diverse depressions. With the new possibilities of the DTM a
new “contender” has entered the discussion, which was already
considered as a cause sporadically in former times, since relatively short
time with the extreme terrain resolution of the DTM has led to completely
new ways of consideration. This article reports about it with the nding
that impact craters may be the more reasonable explanation for
previously assumed pingos, mardels in the general sense, and dead ice
holes.
Keywords: Pingo, mardel, sinkhole, dead ice hole, meteorite crater, impact crater
strewn eld, impact airburst
____________________________________________
1University of Würzburg, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany, kernstson@ernstson.de;
2Geophysik Poßekel Mülheim, Germany, jens.possekel@cityweb.de.
1 Introduction:
Pingos are mounds of earth formed in permafrost. The interior of
the mound consists of an ice core, and they have a circular or oval
shape and can reach a diameter of up to several hundred meters
and a height of up to several dekameters. When the ice core melts,
the pingo collapses and forms a depression in the ground called a
pingo ruin. A common explanation of ice core formation is artesian
rising warmer waters in the permafrost, which freeze there and are
successively pushed further and further up as a massive core.
The term “mardel” (or mardelle) is generally used to describe both
temporary and year-round water-lled terrain depressions.
Mardels can be both shallow sinkholes [3], which were formed
naturally, and articial pits, which were excavated by material
extraction for various purposes, but were also already interpreted
as human dwellings.
Conceptually related to the mardels are the “Sölle” [1, and
references therein, 2], a glacial and periglacial phenomenon in the
ground moraine landscapes of continental Europe. Their
formation as small roundish depressions with a ring wall is
generally understood as dead ice hole formation [e.g. Wikipedia],
while according to [2] rather an interpretation according to the
pingo model seems to be applicable. The literature on these
conspicuous, in some areas to tens of thousands of trough-like,
mostly roundish terrain forms, is enormous with a variety of
conicting theories of origin.
Here we take up the already discussed formation of the Sölle,
pingos, dead ice holes and mardels [4], and extend our hypothesis
that for a part of these disputed depressions a meteorite impact
origin is the more accurate solution. An opinion on the formation
of mardels as meteoritic craters, standing alone at that time, was
already published in [5, 6]. The fact that today this hypothesis is
revived and can be signicantly substantiated is due to the now
generally available area-wide data for extremely high-resolution
digital terrain models (DTM) in the centimeter and decimeter
range, partly in combination with modern geophysical measuring
methods, which were not available to earlier ice age researchers
and geomorphologists.
Fig. 1. Pingo ruins. A Bovlund (Denmark), B Drenthe (The
Netherlands), C Pingo National Landmark (Canada), D Wellingster
See (Lower Saxony, Germany), E Schwanefeld/ Hohengüstow
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany). Google Earth.
2 Pingo ruins
The pingo ruins from various countries shown in Fig. 1 are
considered reasonably certain about to their origin. Probably the
best known is the Mackenzie-Delta pingo region in Canada. (detail
in Fig. 1 C). Common to virtually all pingo ruins is their irregular,
often slightly oval-elongated shape. (Fig. 1). Slight ramparts
conform to the irregular shallow depressions.
3 Mardels
Mardel (= mardelle) is a term used mainly in France (Lorraine,
Burgundy, into the Paris Basin), Luxembourg; Fig. 2) and the
border regions there in Germany (Saarland, Rhineland-
Palatinate), but occasionally appears in the literature for other
countries with glacial and periglacial terrain forms. In practically
all cases, mardels are described as vegetated shallow depressions,
mostly preserved in forests, whose formation is understood in
general as a kind of sinkholes above karstable geological strata.
Fig. 2. Mardels. 1-4 Burgundy, L Luxembourg.
In the glacial areas of the Central European Nordic and Alpine
glaciations, the synonymous terms of “Sölle” or dead ice holes are
more commonly used when the appearance is similar. This implies
a dierent origin (dead ice!) than in the case of the typical
mardels, whereby it also comes to mixings and confusions with the
above mentioned pingo ruins. In the pre-Alpine glacial area, all
such depressions are mostly unisonously declared as dead-ice
holes conicting heavily with the Chiemgau meteorite impact
researchers [7].
4 Meteorite impact crater strewn elds
4.1 Craters
Strewn elds of mostly relatively young meteorite impacts are
known, which include e.g. the densely clustered elds of Morasko,
Odessa, Wabar, Kaalijärv and Macha as well as the more extensive
elds of Campo del Cielo, Wyoming and Bajada del Diablo.
Currently, the largest and most prominent impact crater strewn
eld, with well over 100 individual craters, is that of the Chiemgau
impact, dated to 900-600 BC [7], and many references therein].
Already for the Chiemgau crater strewn eld the high-resolution
DTM (DGM 1 in Germany) has enormously contributed to the
knowledge of the crater formation processes especially for the
craters in the dense forest, which are “transparent” for the DTM.
Other newly discovered young impacts with partly large crater
strewn elds in Central Europe include, with evidence of well-
known impact shock eects and all well-known other impact
inventory, the Nalbach/- Saarlouis impact in Saarland [8], the
Lower Rhine impact with unusual, widespread impactites [9], and
impact strewn elds widespread in the Czech Republic [10, and
references therein]. Common to all is the identication of the
crater strewn elds with the partly innumerable individual craters
is the morphological address using the extremely high-resolution
DTM. This is especially true for the already mentioned North
German glacial and periglacial regions, where elds of typical
impact craters are obviously mixed with glacial forms [4]. Recent
discoveries concern another crater strewn eld outside the glacial
regions, about which there is a parallel paper [11].
Fig. 3 E: Cluster of craters in the Nalbach/Saarlouis impact strewn
eld and probable multiple-impact structures with distinct rim
walls in the Niederhein large strewn eld.
Fig 3 F: Craters in the Lower Saxonia impact strewn eld.
Fig. 3 A – F. Selection of proven and suggested meteorite impact
craters from various strewn elds.
Fig. 4. The drastic dierence. Top: Group of “Sölle” (pingos or
dead ice holes) in the moraine glacial region of Mecklenburg-
Pomerania. Bottom: Associated with the “Sölle” a selection of
nearly perfectly circular structures of similar dimension, which we
interpret as complex (multiple ring) impact sructures. Image
above Google Earth, images below DTM, contour interval 0.1 m.
4.2 Proles
Fig 5. Terrain proles of pingo ruins (Fig. 1, A-E) and mardels (Fig.
2: 3 and L). Height dierences 1 – 5 m. Google Earth.
Fig. 6 A.The nearly perfectly matching proles prove absolute
circularity of the crater over a 40 m area, excluding anthropogenic
or ice age origin as impact opponents claim until today. Chiemgau
impact crater strewn eld, Schatzgrube crater.
Fig. 6 B. Hohengüstow – Mecklenburg-Pomerania: This strewn
eld of several thousand crateriform structures is
commonly attributed to a glacial origin (dead-ice holes, pingo
ruins). Our studies using the great possibilities of high-resolution
DTM show that for a bulk of the mostly perfect circular and
rimmed structures and diameters of in part more than 100 m
cannot possibly have originated as ice age relic.
Top: Nearly perfect circular crateriform structure: note the three
matching diametral DTM proles over 150 m (below). More
structures with a complex shape are discussed below. A small
companion stractures is seen to the NNE.
Fig. 6 C. Like the Schatzgrube crater (Fig. 6 A),we see diametrical
DTM elevation proles through craters from the Premnitz strewn
eld (Fig. 3 B), which can be considered prototypes: a central pit
crater with a pronounced ring wall surrounded by a broader at
depression enlarging the complete structure to a diameter of
several decameters.
Fig. 6 G. Crater proles from the Niederrhein strewn eld craters,
although much larger, show nearly similar shape (in the
mathematical-geometrical sense.
The described prototype of the crateriform structures does not
hide the fact that in all of the strewn elds presented and studied
here there are very complex variations, for which it is somewhat
generalized that a central-pit crater is surrounded by a more or
less broad ring zone of terraced or undulating formation, which
enlarges the whole structure up to three times or more the
morphologically conspicuous inner crater. (Fig. 7). The special
type of water droplet model is shown in Fig. 8.
Fig. 7. Chiemgau impact strewn eld: terraced and wavy craters.
Fig. 8. Premnitz strewn eld:the water droplet model of formation
of complex crateriform structures.Unlike water, the previously
liqueed underground (soil liquefaction) apparently freezes as the
structure is formed.
5 Discussion and conclusion
The line to be drawn here is relatively simple: As exemplied
before, pingos and Sölle in general are never perfectly circular. It is
spoken and written about the round pingos and Sölle, but they are
almost always rather elongated oval and only sometimes
approximately round. It is impossible to understand by common
sense alone how, according to all previous models, depressions
morphologically perfectly circular to the centimeter and decimeter
range should be formed by the collapse of pingo mounds
measuring 100 m or more or the melting of 100 m irregular blocks
of dead ice left by the glacier. If we exclude human origin such as
bomb or other explosion craters or archeological constructs
(which would have to be veried on a case-by-case basis),
meteorite craters recently give an almost reliable response to
distinguish them from conventional interpretations, thanks to the
great capabilities of DTM and data processing.
Perfectly circular ground structures, especially regularly with ring
walls, and often terraced and equipped with wave-like multiple
rings point rather strictly to a formation from above by an impact
process [12]. Since the extremely at craters in the strewn elds
mentioned here exclude an origin by the impact of a massive, solid
projectile, one must think of a model of one or more impact
airbursts already discussed several times before [10, 13], when a
point-like concentrated extreme explosion above the earth’s
surface sends a spherical shock front against the earth’s surface,
which inevitably leads there to perfectly circular terrain
deformations. As a general “motor” for the recently detected
impacts in the Central European area with here briey presented
crater strewn elds, a comet or a “rubble pile” asteroid, which had
previously disintegrated into many individual parts, would be a
hypothesis worth discussing. More than worthy of discussion
should be the realization among glacial geologists and
geomorphologists that in the young postglacial landscapes
meteorite craters, singly or in scattered elds, may be part of the
regular inventory, and pingos, mardels, and Sölle are also
considered from this new point of view.
References:
[1] Martin, M. R. (2014) Eiszeit- glaziologie-Theorie, 17, 18,
viademica.verlag, Berlin
[2] Troll, C. (1962) “Sölle” and “Mardelles”. Glacial and Periglacial
Phenomena in Continental Europe. – In: Erdkunde XVI. – Bonn., 16,
31-34.
[3] Barth, B. et al. (1996) Mardellen im saarländisch-
Iothringischen Schichtstufenland. DELATTINIA, 22, 1-285.
[4] Poßekel, J. and Ernstson, K. (2021) The So-Called “Sölle” Late
Pleistocene Circular Formations in the Brandenburg and
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Federal States (Northern Germany):
Evidence of Meteorite Impact Crater Strewn Fields 12th PCC Mtg.,
Abstract #2024
[5] Cailleux, A. (1956) Mares, mardelles et pingos. Comptes rendus
des seances de l’Académie des Sciences, 242, 15, 1912-1913
[6] Wiegand, G. (1965) Fossile Pingos in Mitteleuropa.
Geographische Gesellschaft Würzburg, 16, 152 p., Würzburg
[7] Rappenglück, M. A., Rappenglück, B., and Ernstson, K. (2017)
Kosmische Kollision in der Frühgeschichte: Der Chiemgau-
Impakt: Die Erforschung eines bayerischen Meteoritenkrater-
Streufelds. Zeitschrift für Anomalistik, Vol. 17, pp. 235–260.
English translation.
[8] Ernstson, K., Müller, W., Gawlik-Wagner, A.(2018) THE
SAARLOUIS SEMI CRATER STRUCTURE: NOTABLE INSIGHT INTO
THE SAARLAND (GERMANY) METEORITE IMPACT EVENT
ACHIEVED. – LPSC, Abstract and Poster #1876
[9] Waldmann, G., F. Herten, M. Hiltl, K. Ernstson (2018) The
Enigmatic Niederrhein (Germany) Deposit: Evidence of a Middle-
Pleistocene Meteorite Impact Strewn Field, Poster LPSC, Abstract and
Poster #1610
[10] Poßekel, J., Molnár, M, Enstson, K.et al. (2022) THE
PROPOSED METEORITE IMPACT EVENT IN THE CZECH
REPUBLIC: EVIDENCE STRENGTHENED BY INVESTIGATIONS
WITH THE DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL LPSC 2022, iPoster DOI:
10.13140/RG.2.2.17849.65123
[11] Ernstson, K., Schulz-Hertlein, G., Ernstson, T., Poßekel, J.
(2022) A Probable Holocene Meteorite Impact Crater Strewn Field
in Lower Franconia (Germany): Evidence from Digital Terrain
Models and Geophysical Surveys (GPR, Electrical Imaging,
Geomagnetics). Poster, AGU Fall Meeting 2022.
[12] Rappenglück, M.A., Poßekel. J., Ernstson, K. (2021) MARS AND
MOON ON EARTH: FORMATION OF SMALL TERRACED IMPACT
CRATERS AND GROUND PENETRATING RADAR INVESTIGATIONS
. – 12th Planetary Crater Consortium Mtg 2021 (LPI Contrib. No.
2621) Abstract #2021.
[13] Ernstson, K., Poßekel, J., Rappenglück, M.A. (2020)Near-
ground airburst cratering: petrographic and ground penetrating
radar (GPR) evidence for a possibly enlarged Chiemgau Impact
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event (Bavaria, SE-Germany). – 51th LPSC, Poster and Abstract
#1231
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