One of the wine refineries in South France has a very unique selling value. Because the area of plantations and grape refineries is located in the crater of ancient meteorite collisions.
After more than 70 years of speculation, the discovery was finally confirmed thanks to the latest analysis of rocks and land known to contain something called microdiamonds.
Actually, the allegation that the basin of the area near the city of Béziers originated from the astronomy event, had been made since the 1950s, but was rejected in 1964 and was never explored further.
Now, as quoted by IFL Science, Wednesday (1/3/2023) the researchers have identified a mixture of typical space minerals in the soil and determined that it was actually formed by the impact of the iron-nicicle meteorite.
With a width of 200 meters and a depth of 30 meters, this crater is relatively small. Such a collision crater is very rare, only 190 is known throughout the world and only three recorded in Western Europe, according to the Earth Impact Database. These craters, found in France and Germany, are all far greater than those in the grape refineries.
"The crater can be formed in many ways, and the meteorite crater is indeed very rare," said study author Professor Frank Brenker from Goethe Frankfurt University in a statement.
"However, I found various other interpretations of how this depression area could be formed not convincing from a geological perspective," he said.
Looking closer to the ground under the vines, Brenker identifies a dark layer, which, he said, may be a shock veins produced by milling and stone fractures, which in turn can be caused by collisions.
He also found evidence of breccias, the fragmented rock found in the 'cement' of smaller mineral particles. This is a typical crater of meteorite collisions, such as the discovery of small balls rich in iron and nickel, which are also found in samples.
"Such microsphere is formed either through meteorite abrasion in the atmosphere or only during collisions, when most iron meteorites melt and then react with oxygen in the air. During collisions, the material that is destroyed at the point of collision may also be wrapped," explained Brenker.
At the same time, researchers found microdiamiamonds shock, which is a microscopic fragment of diamonds formed under high pressure, such as when a meteorite collision occurs.
Separate analysis shows that the earth's magnetic field is weaker in the crater center than in the surrounding area, which can be estimated as evidence of meteorite crashing it, destroying or maybe melting stones and disturbing its magnetic power.
"Overall, this finding allows us to draw other conclusions: A meteorite indeed attacks in this area," Brenker concluded.
Given the scarcity of such a crater, the discovery of other crater is very interesting and raises a number of questions. The most interesting is of course the vineyard.
Having a vineyard on a meteorite crater is of course a good marketing advertisement, and this fact is deliberately highlighted by their owners by named their wine refineries 'Domaine Du Météore' to tell a unique history for years.
"The wine that we produce, it doesn't feel like anything planted in this region or in France. The effect is, we are confident that they come from the history of this garden's astronomy," they claimed on their website.