earth science

Suevite

Suevite is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Suevite rather than just read about it. In short: Suevite is a rock consisting partly of melted material, typically forming a breccia containing glass and crystal or lithic fragments, formed during an impact event. It forms part of a group of rock types and structures that are known as impactites.

Key takeaways

Suevite belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Suevite to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Suevite from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Suevite is a rock consisting partly of melted material, typically forming a breccia containing glass and crystal or lithic fragments, formed during an impact event. It forms part of a group of rock types and structures that are known as impactites.

Name The word "suevite" is derived from "Suevia", Latin name of Swabia. The geologist Oliver Sachs was able to show that, over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, this type of rock was recognized as something special and, in 1919, was formally introduced into petrographic science by Adolf Sauer under the name "suevite".

Formation Suevite is thought to form in and around impact craters by the sintering of molten fragments together with unmelted clasts of the country rock. Rocks formed from more completely melted material found in the crater floor are known as tagamites. Suevite is distinct from the pseudotachylite in an impact structure as the latter is thought to have formed by frictional effects within the crater floor and below the crater during the initial compression phase of the impact and the subsequent formation of the central uplift.

Occurrence Suevite is one of the diagnostic rock-types for large impact structures. It has been described from many of the larger impact structures identified on earth.

Nördlinger Ries Sudbury Basin Popigai impact structure Chicxulub crater Kara crater Gardnos crater Lake Lappajärvi

See also Meteorite shock stage Shock metamorphism

References

External links

Page on Suevites from website on Impact Structures by Kord Ernstson & Fernando Claudin

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Suevite

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Suevite claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Suevite before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Suevite ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Suevite

In research: Suevite appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Suevite in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Suevite is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Impact event minerals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Suevite outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Suevite in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Suevite means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Suevite out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Suevite in simple terms?

Why does Suevite matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Suevite?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Suevite.