Diamonds are forever in the German town of Nördlingen – because embedded in the walls of nearly all of its buildings are around 72,000 tonnes of diamonds.
The jewels were created by an asteroid that smashed into the earth 15million years ago and can be seen with the naked eye.
However, the locals weren’t aware of the dazzling phenomenon until the 1960s when two US geologists, Eugene Shoemaker and Edward Chao, arrived in the town.
Although the near-perfectly circular town (so fairytale-like it featured in the 1971 version of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory) looks like it fills a complete crater, Nördlingen actually sits within the 26km- (16-mile) wide Nördlinger Ries crater – the town’s circular shape is pure coincidence.
Nördlingen’s residents had assumed the Nördlinger Ries crater was the result of a volcanic eruption. But Shoemaker and Chao suspected the crater had been caused by an asteroid colliding with Earth.
Nördlingen sits within the 26km- (16-mile) wide Nördlinger Ries asteroid crater. Embedded in the walls of nearly all of its buildings are around 72,000 tonnes of diamonds
Nördlingen’s jewels were created by an asteroid that smashed into the earth 15million years ago and can be seen with the naked eye
As soon as they visited and saw the church’s walls were peppered with clusters of tiny diamonds, they knew their theory was correct.
Thought to be travelling at 25km (15 miles) per second around 15million years ago, the 1km- (0.62-mile) wide asteroid hit the Earth with such force that it created the Nördlinger Ries crater.
And bubbles of carbon within the rock transformed into tiny diamonds under the pressure and heat of the explosion.
Nördlingen’s residents aren’t going to be rich. While the diamonds help to keep this town shimmering, they don’t have any economic value
Dr Stefan Hölzl, geologist and director of Nördlingen RiesKrater Museum, told the BBC: ‘You have some places in the world where this sort of asteroid impact material has been used for buildings, but nowhere near this amount. Here it was used to build the whole town.’
Nördlingen’s St George’s Church alone is thought to contain 5,000 carats worth of the gems in total.
Hölzl said that Nasa astronauts from the Apollo 14 and Apollo 16 space missions even visited Nördlingen before their moon expeditions to learn about the kind of rocks they might find in space.
Nördlingen’s residents aren’t going to be rich, however. While the diamonds help to keep this town shimmering, they don’t have any economic value.
