Ceremony at the RiesKraterMuseum for “Suevite – Rock of the Year”

On April 26, 2024, the RiesCraterMuseum was the venue for the ceremony to name the suevite “Rock of the Year 2024”.

The ceremony was opened by Andreas Günther-Plönes, Managing Director of the Professional Association of German Geoscientists (BDG) and Prof. Dr. Dr. Joris Peters, Director General of the Bavarian State Natural Science Collections (SNSB). The words of welcome from the District Administrator of the Donau-Ries district, Stefan Rößle, and David Wittner, Mayor of the town of Nördlingen and Deputy Chairman of the Geopark Ries e.V., were followed by numerous presentations.

All presentations helped to understand why suevite is such an important rock despite its rarity and why it deserves the “Rock of the Year 2024” award.

After the presentation of the “Rock of the Year” initiative by Dr. Manuel Lapp (BDG), Heike Burkhardt (Geopark Ries e.V.) and Dr. Gösta Hoffmann (German UNESCO Commission) gave exciting insights into the special features and significance of the Ries as part of the global UNESCO Geopark family. Afterwards, the Suevit itself took center stage and was examined from various perspectives in presentations: Geoscience (Prof. Dr. Stefan Hölzl, RiesKraterMuseum), history (Dr. Roland Eichhorn, Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU)) and economics (Dr. Markus Schauer, Schwenk Zement).

The ceremonial naming of Suevit as “Rock of the Year 2024” finally took place in the Aumühl quarry.