I was browsing Google Earth Pro looking for cool places to hike or camp in Spring, and noticed an oval/circle shaped ridge-line that you don’t often see in nature. I don’t suppose there’s any info on this being an ancient meteor crater? Couldn’t find any myself online.
Perhaps it just seems to be circular on Google Maps when it isn’t. But seemed striking! What do you think/know about this?
Saw that 2 years ago and was as intrigued as you xD. Sadly nothing to find about it online. Maybe it was an ancient volcano?
Want to hike there one day xD.
Don’t think so it may be a sinkhole or created by small rivers flowing down the mountain but meteor craters tend to be more circular than this.
The exact reason to why the valley is so round is hard to determine. But I assume it is partially because of a change in the direction, in which the layers are tilted. In the northern part of the valley they tilt pretty much exactly to the south, and in the western part, they tilt to the south east. This explains the “crater rim” on the north and west. The rest of the circle is likely due to glacial erosion during the ice age. Glaciers often form circular valleys called [cirques](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirque) and this might be one.
I actually talked about this exact place with my geology professor and this was the explanation we came up with.
It’s a nice region for a hike though, and I’ve been there a couple of times before.
​
PS: As far as I know, there are no meteorite impact structures (that we know of) in Switzerland. The closest one is the Nördlinger Ries in southern Germany, which is around 20km across. It formed around 15 Million years ago. The impact was so energetic that it ejected material more than 100 km and caused a “rocky rainfall” in the area of what is now St.Gallen.
Yoo where are my fellow zivis who took their courses in the bottom right of this map at?
6 comments
I was browsing Google Earth Pro looking for cool places to hike or camp in Spring, and noticed an oval/circle shaped ridge-line that you don’t often see in nature. I don’t suppose there’s any info on this being an ancient meteor crater? Couldn’t find any myself online.
Perhaps it just seems to be circular on Google Maps when it isn’t. But seemed striking! What do you think/know about this?
Saw that 2 years ago and was as intrigued as you xD. Sadly nothing to find about it online. Maybe it was an ancient volcano?
Want to hike there one day xD.
Don’t think so it may be a sinkhole or created by small rivers flowing down the mountain but meteor craters tend to be more circular than this.
Just a geological unstable region.
Here a whole doctor thesis about the region: [https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/20637697.pdf](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/20637697.pdf)
In 1994 a whole holyday home settlement was destroyed by a slow landslide [https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/schweiz-aktuell/video/traurige-erinnerungen?urn=urn:srf:video:b24c6c26-18d5-4050-a56a-228648a74ed2](https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/schweiz-aktuell/video/traurige-erinnerungen?urn=urn:srf:video:b24c6c26-18d5-4050-a56a-228648a74ed2)
[https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/mtw/video/erdrutsch-falli-hoelli?urn=urn:srf:video:2a095040-8ff2-48d1-9044-fbed052a6721](https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/mtw/video/erdrutsch-falli-hoelli?urn=urn:srf:video:2a095040-8ff2-48d1-9044-fbed052a6721)
No, it’s just a valley that happens to be exceptionally round. So, sadly, no meteor, volcano or sinkhole.
The bedrock is made out of Flysch, a type of layered sand- and mudstone, which has been tilted. [Here](https://www.google.ch/maps/@46.7170408,7.3067243,3a,75y,226.72h,104.76t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sLKopSCqZZbbVHqpEoYCqnQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DLKopSCqZZbbVHqpEoYCqnQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D11.393573%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en) is an example, what this looks like, located just a bit to the northeast.
The exact reason to why the valley is so round is hard to determine. But I assume it is partially because of a change in the direction, in which the layers are tilted. In the northern part of the valley they tilt pretty much exactly to the south, and in the western part, they tilt to the south east. This explains the “crater rim” on the north and west. The rest of the circle is likely due to glacial erosion during the ice age. Glaciers often form circular valleys called [cirques](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirque) and this might be one.
I actually talked about this exact place with my geology professor and this was the explanation we came up with.
It’s a nice region for a hike though, and I’ve been there a couple of times before.
​
PS: As far as I know, there are no meteorite impact structures (that we know of) in Switzerland. The closest one is the Nördlinger Ries in southern Germany, which is around 20km across. It formed around 15 Million years ago. The impact was so energetic that it ejected material more than 100 km and caused a “rocky rainfall” in the area of what is now St.Gallen.
Yoo where are my fellow zivis who took their courses in the bottom right of this map at?