Pictured: The incredible German town that sits inside an asteroid crater and is covered in 72,000 tons of DIAMONDS
In the German town of Nördlingen, diamonds are timeless. In the walls of almost all buildings, some 72,000 tons of diamonds are processed.
The jewels were created by an asteroid that hit Earth 15 million years ago and are visible to the naked eye.
The locals only became aware of this magnificent phenomenon in the 1960s, when two American geologists, Eugene Shoemaker and Edward Chao, arrived in the town.
Although the almost perfectly round town (so fairytale-like it appeared in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory) looks like it fills an entire crater, Nördlingen is actually located in the 26-kilometre-wide Nördlinger Ries crater. The town’s round shape is purely coincidental.
The residents of Nördlingen assumed that the Nördlinger Ries crater was the result of a volcanic eruption. But Shoemaker and Chao suspected that the crater was caused by an asteroid hitting Earth.
Nördlingen is located in the 26 km (16 mi) wide Nördlinger Ries asteroid crater. The walls of almost all buildings have about 72,000 tons of diamonds embedded in them
The jewels of Nördlingen were created by an asteroid that hit Earth 15 million years ago and are visible to the naked eye
When they visited the church and saw that the walls were covered with clusters of small diamonds, they immediately knew their theory was correct.
The asteroid, which is believed to have been travelling at a speed of 25 kilometres per second 15 million years ago, hit Earth with such force that the crater Nördlinger Ries was created.
And the pressure and heat of the explosion turned carbon bubbles in the rock into tiny diamonds.
The people of Nördlingen will not become rich. Although the diamonds help to make this city shine, they have no economic value.
Dr. Stefan Hölzl, geologist and director of the RiesKrater Museum in Nördlingen, said the BBC: ‘There are places in the world where this kind of asteroid impact material has been used for buildings, but not nearly in this quantity. Here it was used to build the entire city.’
The St. George’s Church in Nördlingen alone is said to contain gemstones worth 5,000 carats.
Hölzl said NASA astronauts from the Apollo 14 and Apollo 16 space missions even visited Nördlingen before their lunar expeditions to learn more about the types of rocks they could encounter in space.
However, the people of Nördlingen will not become rich. Although the diamonds help to make this city shine, they have no economic value.
