When the crater was formed, the various target rocks were shattered (fragmented), ejected, turbulently mixed, and deposited outside the crater as a continuous blanket. It consists of chaotically mixed rock fragments which originate from different bedrock formations. As these display different colours, the chaotic („polymict“) breccia appears multicoloured. This lead to the name “Bunte (multi-coloured) Breccia”.

The proportions of the various rock components in the Bunte Breccia, which originate from different levels of the target rock section, vary considerably from place to place, and also in their size, ranging from fine dust to kilometre-sized blocks. Rocks from the lowest target levels (granite, gneiss, amphibolite) are white, grey, dark green, and reddish. Rock pieces from the upper Triassic have lightgrey, green, and reddish colours. Together with various rocks of the Jurassic period (yellow to light-grey limestones, dark-grey clays, beige to red sandstones) and light-coloured sands from the early Tertiary time, they provide an interesting interplay of colours. All rocks of the Bunte Breccia were subjected to lower pressures and temperatures than the components in the suevite, which formed a “hot” layer deposited on top of the “cold” Bunte Breccia.

In August 1970, NASA conducted geological fi eld training in the Ries crater for the astronauts of the Apollo 14 and 17 missions.

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The bedrock formations, the resulting soils, and the climate have made the Ries the “corn basket” of Bavaria. Cereals have been planted in the Ries since the 6th century BC. Since about 1800 root crops and fodder plants have also been cultivated.(www.rieser-bauernmuseum.de)

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Suevite, which was created by the Ries impact event, has been used as building stone in the Ries and the surrounding areas already by the Romans. Especially in the Middle Ages it became the building material for numerous buildings in Nördlingen and its surroundings. The cathedral of St.George , for example, with its tower called “Daniel”, is built almost entirely of suevite. It is not known exactly whether the
building material came from just one quarry, the quarry of Altenbürg.

Suevite has not only been used for the construction of churches, but also for other buildings of non-religious character in the region around the Ries and beyond.
In Nördlingen parts of the City Hall, the Baldingen Gate and other gates of the city wall, as well as parts of the city fortifications (e.g. the Berger wall), have been built with this material. In the area around
Nördlingen, suevite was used at Harburg and for a number of village churches. In Munich suevite building stones can be admired at the German Museum and the former Royal Bavarian Traffic Ministry. Even
Berlin hosts several suevite buildings.

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