September 2, 2024, 3:33 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
The German town of Nördlingen is sitting on an incredible treasure – literally. An estimated 72,000 tons of diamonds can be found within the walls of its buildings. The precious stones were created eons of years ago by a natural disaster – and were only discovered by chance. Since then, even the American space agency NASA has visited the site.
Anyone walking through the Bavarian town of Nördlingen can observe a unique phenomenon on a sunny day. The walls of the buildings sometimes seem to glitter and sparkle – and in fact, this is not an optical illusion but a natural phenomenon that is unique in the world. Nördlingen is sitting on an incredible treasure, literally. There are an estimated 72,000 tons of diamonds within its walls. But how did the precious stones get there? And why were they only discovered around 60 years ago?
According to the BBC, the town of Nördlingen is located in the so-called Nördlinger Ries, a 26-kilometer-wide crater. First mentioned in documents in the 9th century AD, its inhabitants always assumed that the huge hole was the remains of an extinct volcano. It was not until the 1960s that they learned that they were wrong about this theory. And also that their city had the highest concentration of diamonds in the world. Not only that, it is literally built on them. And this is not thanks to a volcano, but to a cosmic force.
The inhabitants had no idea
It was 1960 when the US geologists Eugene Shoemaker and Edward Chao visited Nördlingen. They want to find out more about the origins of the Nördlinger Ries. And soon realize that it cannot be a volcanic crater. Instead, they suspect that a truly cosmic cause is responsible for the formation of the huge crater. They soon find their theory confirmed. They discover that there are countless diamonds in the walls of Nördlingen’s buildings. A fact the inhabitants had not had the slightest idea of until then. This fact also leads to a spectacular explanation for the formation of the Nördlingen Ries.
Based on the extraordinary rock interspersed with diamonds, the scientists prove that the crater around Nördlingen must have been formed around 15 million years ago by the impact of a huge asteroid. One kilometer wide, it probably hurtled towards the earth at a speed of 25 kilometers per second, hitting with incredible force. This not only created the 26-kilometer-wide crater but also the diamonds. Formed by tremendous pressure and heat, the carbon contained in the asteroid rock was transformed into the precious stones.
A visit from NASA
But why wasn’t this phenomenon discovered much earlier? After all, diamonds can be found in the walls of almost every house in Nördlingen. In fact, the town is practically built on them. The fact that they were not discovered much earlier is solely due to their vanishingly small size. A typical Nördlingen diamond is less than 0.2 millimeters in diameter. This probably also saved the town after the discovery, as the gemstones have no economic value as a result.
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Nördlingen is the world record-holder
Nevertheless, Nördlingen has been the world record holder ever since because nowhere else in the world is there such a high concentration of diamonds in the rock. After the US colleagues’ visit, local geologists concluded that an incredible 72,000 tons of gems could be found in the so-called suevite rock of Nördlingen. The asteroid impact not only brought fame to the town world but also other high-ranking foreign visitors. The astronauts on the Apollo 14 and 16 missions visited the Nördlinger Ries before their launch into space. They wanted to prepare themselves here for the rocks they might find in space and bring back to Earth.
Nördlingen is not only the most diamond-rich town in the world, but it is also worth a visit to admire the extraordinary townscape. Because Nördlingen was literally built into the asteroid crater, at least the old part of the town has an almost perfectly circular shape. According to the Daily Mail, this also inspired the makers of the original film “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in 1971, who found a fairy-tale backdrop for their shoot here. A special destination in the city is probably the Protestant St. George’s Church, as there are said to be 5,000 carats worth of diamonds here alone.