Comment on “A high-precision 40Ar/39Ar age for the Nördlinger Ries impact crater, Germany, and implications for the accurate dating of terrestrial impact events” by Schmieder et al. (Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 220 (2018) 146-157)

Schmieder et al. (2018) suggest an impact age for the Ries crater in Southern Germany that is at odds with paleomagnetic systematics and thus geologically impossible, even within its external 2-sigma error. Paleomagnetic systematics allow for only two alternative impact ages that are both tightly constrained by orbital tuning. The relative differences to the Schmieder et al. (2018) age amount to 60 and 200 ka, respectively. Such time intervals are, however, highly significant with respect to the timing of climatic and environmental signals recorded in the Middle Miocene molasse sediments.