Response to 'The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria (south-east Germany)' by Rappengluck et al. (Antiquity 84).

Response to 'The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria (south-east Germany)' by Rappengluck et al. (Antiquity 84). The article by Rappengluck et al. (2010) has proposed a connectionbetween the historical myth of the fall of Phaethon and a meteorite meteorite,meteor that survives the intense heat of atmospheric friction and reaches the earth's surface. Because of the destructive effects of this friction, only the very largest meteors become meteorites. impact in south-eastern Bavaria. The authors contend that the well-knownmyth of the crash of the sun chariot represents the survival of a memoryof this natural catastrophe and suggest therefore that this confirmsthat the impact took place during the Iron Age, some 2500 years ago. TheTuttensee plays an important part in this hypothesis; the authorsconsider it to be the largest crater in a strewn strew?tr.v. strewed, strewn or strewed, strew��ing, strews1. To spread here and there; scatter: strewing flowers down the aisle.2. field of 60 x 40km. The phenomena which they ascribe to the meteorite impact have,however, long been known to geologists working in the region to be theresults of processes connected to glaciers, i.e. processes ofredeposition Noun 1. redeposition - deposition from one deposit to anotherdeposition, deposit - the natural process of laying down a deposit of something and weathering. The arguments, drawing on astronomical andarchaeological associations, continue to give cause for doubt (see alsoDarga & Wierer 2009) and geological misgivings have now beenvindicated by radiocarbon dating obtained for the infilling of the basinof the Tuttensee. Dating An auger core was taken from the peat bog surrounding thepresent-day Tuttensee (inside the proposed 'crater wall').This core encountered peat above lake marl Marl, city, GermanyMarl(märl), city (1994 pop. 92,590), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany. It is an industrial and mining (coal, lead, and zinc) center, and also supports a number of chemical factories. . Four samples from differentdepths gave an undisturbed sequence ranging from 4800 years ago near thesurface to 12 500 years ago flora the lake deposits at the base. Description of the profile (Kroemer 2010) and dating [Lab. no BetaAnalytics, USA] -0.5 m peat decomposed 0.6m cal BP 4580-4420 [Beta 262618] 0.8m cal BP 6890-6670 [Beta 262617] 2.5m cal BP 10 220-9910 [Beta 265371] -2.5m fen peat to wood peat 2.8m cal BP 12 750-12 390 [Beta 265372] -4.0m lake marl (confirmed) -5.0m lake marl (presumed on the basis of the consistency tested bypiling) The deposits were generally waterlogged; the lake marl especiallyhad a soft consistency. This continuous and undisturbed sequence of peat overlying overlyingsuffocation of piglets by the sow. The piglets may be weak from illness or malnutrition, the sow may be clumsy or ill, the pen may be inadequate in size or poorly designed so that piglets cannot escape. lakedeposits from 4800 to 12 500 BP clearly contradicts the existence ofstructures which would be expected from a 2500-year-old impact crater “Meteor crater” redirects here. For the crater of that name, see Meteor Crater.In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with larger body. .Above all, Rappengluck et al. (2010) propose an impact which not onlycreated the Tuttensee basin but also caused massive shock effects in therock leading to melting and the formation of nanodiamonds. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Additional scientific counter arguments The crater rim proposed by Rappengluck et al. (2010) does notexhibit the shape normally expected of crater walls; instead it takesthe form of a gravel terrace, in part more than 200m wide, built up bymeltwater melt��wa��ter?n.Water that comes from melting snow or ice.meltwaterNounmelted snow or iceNoun 1. on the edge of the ice. Moreover, it is confined to thewestern and southern shores of the Tuttensee (Figure 1) and showsfluvial flu��vi��al?adj.1. Of, relating to, or inhabiting a river or stream.2. Produced by the action of a river or stream.[Middle English, from Latin crossbedding in a gravel pit. The Tuttensee landscape has beenidentified for quite some time as belonging to glacial formations (Ganss1977; Gareis 1978). Rock debris, created by tectonics, erosion and also impact, canlater be turned back into solid stone (mostly) through the agency ofbinding agents, for example calcitic cal��cite?n.A common crystalline form of natural calcium carbonate, CaCO3, that is the basic constituent of limestone, marble, and chalk. Also called calcspar. cementation cementationIn geology, the hardening and welding of clastic sediments (those formed from preexisting rock fragments) by the precipitation of mineral matter in the pore spaces. It is the last stage in the formation of sedimentary rock. ; these are theso-called breccias. Such formations came into being on a large scale bytectonic movements during the formation of the Alpine mountain chain.Boulders and pebbles from Alpine breccias thus belong to the commoncomponents of moraines and gravels of the Alpine piedmont. The shape ofpebbles and calcitic cementation can later disappear in part orcompletely through dissolving processes during weathering. This is not aconsequence of an impact, and could be confirmed also in the Chiemseeregion (Freude 2007). The authors of the Phaethon article also document the case offragments of pebbles pushed together and reconstituted. This phenomenontoo is known over the whole Alpine piedmont and can be attributed topressure of overlying deposits or glacier ice. The 'strongcorrosion of rocks down to skeletal formation' (Rappengluck et al.2010: 430) described by the authors also belongs to known dissolutionand weathering events. These are particularly serious and occur overextensive areas as the amount of precipitation along the edges of theAlps is relatively high (up to 2000mm per year). There is no need toattribute the presence of corroded surfaces or dissolved rock formationsto the effects of nitric acid nitric acid,chemical compound, HNO3, colorless, highly corrosive, poisonous liquid that gives off choking red or yellow fumes in moist air. It is miscible with water in all proportions. from an impact cloud. Pebbles with vitrified surfaces, in part with bubbles, occurfrequently in the region, deriving, for example, from lime kilns or fromthe smelting of iron. The carbon spherules spherulesdouble-contoured, highly refractile bodies in which the fungus Coccidioides immitis occurs in animal tissues. Called also sporangia. described from the sedimentsand ascribed to the heat effect of the impact also form in'normal' heating processes known from recent periods. Such'spherules' from the firing of steamers have been used to datethe most recent deposits of the Mississippi in the USA (Markewich 1998). The ferro silicides ('strange matter' [Rappengluck et al.2010: 430]) encountered in the region, which the authors of the Phaethonarticle relate to material derived from comets, do not exhibit anextraterrestrial geochemical signature (Fehr et al. 2004). Thesematerials are known to originate from industrial processes undertakenwithin the 'strewn field'. The authors further suggest that one or several large bodiescrashed into the Chiemsee. There are no indications of such an event. Onthe contrary: between 1997 and 2000 intensive limnological-geologicalinvestigations by the Technical University of Munich Munich University of Technology, or Technical University of Munich (TUM) (in German: Technische Universit?t M��nchen, TUM), is a major German university located in Munich (and the towns of Garching and Freising outside of Munich). have examined theChiemsee deposits in over 200km of seismic profiles and have dated bypollen four piston cores (each 11m long). Two cores reach down to theYounger Dryas, one to the upper Atlanticum, and one well into theSub-boreal (Muller et al. 2001). They produced undisturbed sections andshow no indication of a major disturbance in the sedimentary sequencewhich would be expected from an impact. The Chiemsee once extended as far as Grabenstatt but neverincluded, as stated, the Tuttensee. This can be documented by wellborings and comparison of the patterns exhibited by the deposits of theChiemsee and the Tutterlsee. Relevant too is the height above sea levelof the Tuttensee (526m asl) which is 8m higher than that of the morerecent Chiemsee. There are finds dated to the Stone Age from the islandof Krautinsel which only just emerges from the surface of the lake andfurthermore the presence of a Roman cemetery at Seebruck located just c.2m above the current level of the Chiemsee. Therefore a significantlyhigher water level in the period concerned may be excluded. The 'tsunami situation' proposed by Rappengluck et al.(2010) for the archaeological excavation of Stottham was investigated byarchaeologists contracted to the Bayerisches Landesamt fur Denkmalpflege(directed by Moslein) and by soil scientists of the BayerischesLandesamt fur Umwelt (Traidl & Jochum 2007). Both sets ofresearchers identify this deposit as anthropogenic an��thro��po��gen��ic?adj.1. Of or relating to anthropogenesis.2. Caused by humans: anthropogenic degradation of the environment. . The redepositionhorizon on the site is dated archaeologically to a period earlier than2500 years ago, and there are no archaeological indications of acatastrophic scenario in the Chiemgau region. Besides the geological and archaeological findings from theChiemgau, the astronomical indications required as criteria for animpact could not be found here. The physical conditions for an impactstrewn field of the magnitude assumed by the authors of the Phaethonarticle cannot be met (see for example Heinlein 2009). Conclusion The idea of a meteorite impact during the Iron Age has beenadvocated by the Chiemgau Impact Research Team (to which most of theauthors of the Antiquity article belong) and has been eagerly taken upby the media. However, multiple geological, archaeological andastronomical arguments are contrary to this interpretation. Moreover,new data show that the Tuttensee basin originated not 2500 years ago but12 500 years ago, i.e. at the end of the Ice Age. We can only concludethat the interpretation of the Phaethon myth by Rappengluck et al.(2010) is pure speculation. References DARGA, R. & J.F. WIERER. 2009. Der Chiemgau-Impakt: eineSpekulationsblase, oder: der Tuttensee ist Kein Kometenkrater, in R.Darga & J.F. Wierer (ed.) Auf den Spuren desInn-Chiemsee-Gletschers: Exkursionen (Wanderungen in die Erdgeschichte27): 174-85. Munchen: Pfeil. FEHR, K. TH., R. HOCHLEITNER, ST. HOLZL, E. GEISS, J. POHL POHL Principal Officer Health Liaison (UK)& J.FASSBINDER. 2004. Ferrosilizium-Pseudometeorite aus dem Raum Burghausen,Bayern. Aufschluss 55: 297-303. FREUDE, F. 2007. Strukturgeologisch-petrographische Untersuchungenan Karbonatgerollen einer Schotterterrasse im Chiemgau und Diskussionder Ergebnisse im Rahmen der Impakt-Streufeld-Hypothese. Unpublisheddiploma dissertation, University of Erlangen-Nurnberg. GANSS, O. 1977. Geologische Karte von Bayern 1:25 000,Erlauterungen zum Blatt Nr. 8140 Prien a. Chiemsee und zum Blatt Nr.8141 Traunstein. Munchen: Bayerisches Geologisches Landesamt. GIREIS, J. 1978. Die Toteisfluren des bayerischen Alpenvorlandesais Zeugnis fur die Art des spatwurmzeitlichen Eisschwundes (WurzburgerGeographische Arbeiten 46). Wurzburg: Im Selbstverlag des Instituts furGeographie der Universitaat Wurzburg in Verbindung mit derGeographischen Gesdlschaft. HEINLEIN, D. 2009. Der so genannte 'Kelten-Killer-Komet':gab es einen Kometeneinschlag im Chiemgau? Journal fur Astronamie 3(30):84-6. KROEMER, E. 2010. Sedimentenmahme und Datierungen in derVerlandungszone des Tuttensees. Available at: http://www.lfu.bayern.de/geologie/doc/tuettensee_datierungen-kurztext_keaend.pdf (accessed 24November 2010). MARKEWICH, H.W. (ed.) 1998. Carbon storage and Late Holocenechronostratigraphy Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that studies the age of rock strata in relation to time.The ultimate aim of chronostratigraphy is to arrange the sequence of deposition and the time of deposition of all rocks within a geological region, and eventually, the of a Mississippi River deltaic marsh, St BernardParish, Louisiana. Available at:http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1998/of98036/pdf/of98-036.pdf (accessed 24November 2010). MOLLER, J., E. KROEMER, S. VOLLAND, J. WALLNER & L. EBER 2001.Untersuchung zur Verlandung des Chiemsees, Abschlussbericht. Unpublishedreport, Technische Universitat Munchen. RAPPENGLOCK, B., M.A. RAPPENGLUCK, K. ERNSTSON, W. MAYER, A.NEUMMR, D. SUDHAUS & I. LIRITZIS. 2010. The fall of the Phaethon: aGreco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact inBavaria (south-east Germany). Antiquity 84: 428-39. TRAIDL, R. & R. JOCHUM. 2007. Profilaufnahme Grabung Stottham.Unpublished report, Bayerisches Landesamt fur Umwelt. Gerhard Doppler, Erwin Geiss, Ernst Kroemer & Robert Traidl * * Bayerkches Landesamt fur Umwelt, Geologischer Dienst,Lazarettstr. 67, Munchen 80636, Germany Translated by M. Hummler