ABSTRACT
While the period of Nazi rule, as well as World War II and its aftermath, caused a significant disruption in Germany of the impact concept of crater formation, impact research continued unabated in North America, even though the detailed scientific investigation at Meteor Crater was still hampered by a lack of interest among officials of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as well as the reservations of the local mining company under Barringer. Robert Sinclair Dietz, geologist and oceanographer, worked for his PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) but received his degrees from the University of Illinois. In 1963 Dietz became a member of the oceanographic and geological studies group of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, later integrated into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). On 24 June 1955, According to Dietz (1959), he visited the Steinheim Basin in 1956 and 1957, but Seibold's field notebook confirms that the first visit was in 1955.
