[meteorite-list] Re: KOFELSITE

From: herbert.raab_at_ris.at <herbert.raab_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:50:21 2004
Message-ID: <020402172006380800_at_risc01>

Hello List,

there is a wide agreement among geologists today
that the Köfels "pumice" is the result of a giant
landslide. Weather or not the landslide has been
triggered by an meteorite impact is still a matter
of disussion, but an impact is not needed to explain
any of the features found at the site. The planare
weak deformation features found in some samples are
far less obvious than, for example, in specimens
from the Ries crater and might as well have been
caused by the landslide. No chemical signature
(e.g., Iridium) of an impacting meteorite has been
found.

I was fortunate enough to meet Gene Shoemaker in
1997 when he gave a talk in Vienna. I asked him
about the Köfels impact. He smiled and just said
"No...It's no impact site". We quickly found more
interesting things to talk about... ;-)

By the way, some information about the Köfels
landslide can be found at this site:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/geolsci/runout/rapid.html#Kofels

Hope this helps...

  Herbert
Received on Tue 02 Apr 2002 10:20:04 AM PST