Meteor Crater: From Shooting Star to Dust
- The Millers Daughter
- Sep 12, 2024
- 6 min read
Meteor Crater is an impact crater located in the Arizona desert. It is one of the best-preserved impact craters on Earth and is a popular tourist destination.
While the meteorite was a destructive force, the crater it left behind has become a source of fascination for many. The crater is now a national landmark and a popular tourist destination, drawing visitors from all over the world.
“An impactful hit of this magnitude resulted in a crater that is over 4,000 feet wide and 560 feet deep.”
The Impact
Meteor Crater was created by the impact of an iron meteorite that was about 150 feet in diameter and weighed about 300,000 tons. The meteorite was traveling at about 40,000 miles per hour when it hit the ground. The impact created an explosion that was ten times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
It is a stunning example of the power of nature. Over 50,000 years ago, a meteorite traveling at an estimated 26,000 to 29,000 miles per hour crashed into the earth. Despite its immense size, the crater is not visible from space and is instead only visible from the ground, making it a hidden gem.
The explosion vaporized the meteorite and excavated a crater that is 1.2 miles in diameter and 570 feet deep. The impact also ejected rock and debris to a distance of several miles. The force of the impact also caused the ground to shake for hundreds of miles around.
It appears as though the meteor came in from a northerly trajectory. The impact angle is thought to have been at about 45 degrees. This is ideal in creating a circular-esque crater. It is estimated to have weighed 30 tons.
Meteor Crater is a Simple Crater
A simple crater is formed by a fast impactor, typically a rocky body or a comet. Impact velocity is high enough to cause the impactor to partially vaporize upon impact, forming a molten mass. Ejecta is thrown out at high velocities, but typically not at escape velocity, so it falls back to the surface, forming a blanket of ejecta around the crater. The ejecta forms a circular pattern, with a rim that is higher than the original surface.
The Rim
An important thing to notice with this impact is that it caused the natural rock layering to invert. This means that the layers seen below are stacked in the reverse order in which they have occurred over the centuries. It was such a strong and direct impact event that it overturned and inverted the sedimentary layers at a distance of 1 to 2 kilometer away from the craters edge.
From the outside this inverted stratigraphy can be seen from the layering of the soils. The sandstone formed 265 million years ago lies at the top, limestone formed 255 million years ago is next, then there is dolostone from 250 million years ago, and finally mudstone from 245 million years ago.
The Aftermath
The impact of this falling star had a devastating impact on the surrounding area. The blast wave from the explosion knocked down trees and ignited fires. The ejecta from the crater buried the surrounding area under several feet of rock and debris. The impact also caused the ground to fracture, creating cracks and fissures.
When the meteor impacted this area the climate was much cooler and the lands were filled with mammoths and giant ground sloths. This occurred during the Pleistocene epoch, in which the Colorado Plateau was damper with some trees and an open grassland.
The aftermath of the impact created a barren and desolate landscape. It took many years for the area to recover. Plants and animals slowly returned to the area, but it was not until thousands of years later that the area fully recovered.
The Study of the Mysterious Desert Crater
Through-out the decades, Meteor Crater has garnered its fair share of attention. When it was initially studied in the 1800’s there was not a great understanding of meteors and impact physics and the crater was believed to have come from a volcanic steam explosion. It was even established as fact in 1891.
However, in 1903, Daniel Barringer suggested that the crater was formed due to the impact of a meteorite made of iron. His company, Standard Iron Company, staked a mining claim and received the patent for 640 acres of land starting in the center of the crater. The crater is still privately owned by the Barringer family, due to this it is also known as the Barringer Crater.
Unfortunately, even though minds had broadened on the idea of meteors impacting the Earth, the full idea of how much would survive from entry to impact was not yet fully understood. In 1929, F.R. Moulton, an astronomer employed by the Barringer’s concluded that with the weight of the meteor and the speed in which it fell, it would have generated so much heat that it would vaporize the impactor instantly.
Enjoy this 1906 read on Meteor Crater by the Geological Society by Herman L. Fairchild. In this documentation the rock strata, volcanic theory, and disposition of the meteor are all discussed. During this time Meteor Crater was often referred to as Coon Butte, Crater Mountain, and more.
A COMET STRIKES THE EARTH!
Harvey Nininger had assembled the largest personal collection of meteorites by the early 1930’s. He was a meteoriticist and teacher with a deep devotion to the study of his field. He believed that Meteor Crater should become a National Monument and petitioned successfully for it to become so in 1948.
Meteor Crater - A Shooting Star
He opened the American Meteorite Museum in 1942 and published books on Arizona's Meteorite Crater. He did extensive research on the grounds and found half-melted slugs of meteoric iron mixed with the melted target rock on the premises.
Come the 1950’s the Barringer family was offended at the attempts made by Nininger to nationalize the crater. They terminated his exploration rights to the crater and shut-down his museum. In 1953, the Barringer family opened their own museum and visitors center on the rim of the crater.
The remains of Harvey Nininger’s museum can still be seen at the exit of the highway heading down the entry road to national monument. Meteor Crater, a shooting star that turned chasing dreams into laborious dust.
The Canyon Diablo Meteorite
What is a meteoroid? Meteors, also known as shooting stars, involve seeing the passage of a meteoroid, asteroid or comet entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Meteorite’s are the surviving fragments of a meteor that has lived through the extreme ablation of passing through the atmosphere.
These meteor fragments found around Meteor Crater are aptly named Canyon Diablo meteorites due to the nearby Diablo Canyon, which lays 3 to 4 miles west of the impact site. These fragments have been found around the crater rim and are made mostly of iron. They have a structural classification known as Coarse Octahedrite. This is the most common class of iron composite meteorites. Its’ structural name comes from the crystal structure paralleling the an octahedron.
The largest fragment found at the crater is named the Holsinger fragment. It can be viewed in the museum located onsite. Looking at it, one can see that it is about 2.5 feet in length and though it may not look like it, it weights a little over 1400 pounds.
Although it is classified as mostly iron there are other minerals that can be found in this meteorite. Some of these include:
Chenite
Chromite
Daubréelite
Diamond
Carbon (Graphite)
Haxonite
Kamacite
Moissanite
The Crater Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
It is estimated that a total of 25 million micrometeoroids, meteoroids, and other space debris enter the atmosphere of the Earth each day. This crater is a testament to the power of nature and the ultimate coincidence of our natural subjection in the stars. From the shooting star that caused the crater to the dust that remains, it is a reminder of the fragility yet resilience of our planet and the awe-inspiring forces that shape it.
In the time of yester-year, NASA used this crater as a training ground for the astronauts who would go to the moon in the 1960’s. The crater is viewed to be the closest training grounds that one might get on Earth as walking on those craterous impact sites on the moon itself. It was just the thing NASA was looking for!
Today, Meteor Crater is open to the public and is located in the Arizona desert, about 25 miles east of Flagstaff. There is a very fun museum on site that tells the story of the impact and its aftermath. Tourists can take guided tours of the crater, learn about its history and geology, and even search for meteorite fragments.
Even when humanity thinks it knows-it-all, there is still so much more to learn. To this day and onward, scientists will still continue to study Meteor Crater, learning more about impact events and their effects on the environment.
As for the future of Meteor Crater, one can only hope that it remains open to the public forever. In recent times, it is being used again by NASA to help train new members for the upcoming Artemis missions and future landings on both the moon and Mars. It is one of, if not the best-preserved crater on Earth, and it is ideal for establishing humanity's best foot forward in real-world practice of a lunar or celestial landing.
Most important rule: Enjoy every moment!
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