Meteoria

520 million years ago..

Drama and slow change over 520 million years


The exhibition includes a stunning long time - 520 million years. In the beginning a large meteorite / asteroid collided with Earth. In a hellish moment the power of the universe came to shape Söderfjärden. In a violent explosion a deep crater  was formed. Rock and meteorite melted and evaporated. Stones were plunged far over a wide area. A tsunami-wave spread across a desert sea. Slowly the crater was filled with sand and clay and pressed together during millions of years, to form sedimentary rocks. More material covered and protected the crater's edges for hundreds of millions of years. Ice ages and erosion slowly wore up the crater rim.

Today Söderfjärden is one of Earth's best-preserved meteorite craters and rightly called Finland's most beautiful meteorite crater.Taulu 3-4.jpg

During the long period from the impact til today the Fennoscandian shield with Söderfjärden wandered from the southern hemisphere up to 63o N.

The exhibition's multimedia tells the 520 million year long history in ten intense minutes.

After the multimedia, the visitor can study a miniature crater of Söderfjärden and a panoramic painting of the area emerged from the sea and evolved over more than four thousand years.

The light cabinet on the first floor is about meteorite craters,  When the sky falls down and Söderfjärdens emergence as Finland's most beautiful meteorite crater.

A total of seven drill holes have provided knowledge of the crater geology. Cores from the deepest drill hole that went down to 347 meters, are displayed in a vitrine. Samples of many meteorites found on different places on earth are also on display in a meteorite cabinet. Visitors may also hold a genuine space rock in their hand.
A light cabinet on the second floor provides illustrated knowledge of land uplift after the last ice age: Land from sea - man arrives.