Ritland
Key facts
- Country
- Norway
- Diameter
- 2.7 km
- Age
- about 520 million years
- Location
- 59.23° N, 6.43° E
A shallow bowl in the mountains above the fjords of Rogaland, south-west Norway, with outcrops of breccia and of sediments that filled the crater.
Ritland is an impact crater about 2.7 km across in the mountains of Rogaland, south-western Norway, near the village of Ritland, east of Stavanger. It was identified in the early 2000s.
What it hit. About 520 million years ago, in the Cambrian, an asteroid struck ancient granite and gneiss on the floor of a shallow sea. The crater was soon filled with breccia, sediment that slid in from the rim, and sea-floor muds.
How it survived. Later, during the building of the Caledonian mountains about 400 million years ago, huge sheets of rock were pushed over the area, burying and protecting the crater. Erosion has since removed this cover, revealing the crater fill.
Proof of impact. Geologists found shatter cones, cone-shaped fractures produced by shock, and quartz grains with planar deformation features, confirming an impact.
Why it matters. Ritland preserves a detailed record of how a small crater on a sea floor filled with sediment after the impact. The impactor is unknown.
Visiting. The area is mountain farmland and rough country. Ask permission before crossing private land.
Did you know?
Ritland was buried beneath mountain-building rock sheets and later exposed by erosion.
It formed on a shallow sea floor in the Cambrian.
Shatter cones and shocked quartz confirmed the impact.