Facts About Meteor Crater In Arizona
Before about 50,000 years impact of large meteoroid made a huge hole in the Earth’s surface in the wilds of Arizona, USA.
Meteor Crater is located about 70 km east of Flagstaff, in northern Arizona desert part. Viewed from the surrounding plains, the edges of the crater looks like a low hill and does not give a big hole frames.
How deep and wide is Meteor Crater? The crater has a diameter of 1,200 meters and is 180 meters deep, with a rim that rises above the plains further 45 meters. Its interior is so similar to the lunar surface, so the astronauts from the “Apollo” practiced here, and there are tested vehicles were later moved by the moon.
How was Meteor Crater formed?
Scientists estimate that the meteoroid was moving at a speed of 71000 km/h and that is when they hit the ground exploded with the power of a thousand times greater than the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. He lifted it into the air five to six million tons of rock and land and blocked the sunlight.
After a meteoroid impact, which is assumed to have been 40 km in diameter, weighs more than 300,000 tons, is dispersed and dissolved. The remains of the of meteoroids, which consisted of nickel and iron, were found within 10 kilometers.
Who owns Meteor Crater?
Once it was considered that this is the crater of volcanic origin, but a mining engineer from Philadelphia Daniel Barringer was among the first who noted that this is a crater that was created by the fall of meteoroid. Believing that the crater is rich with nickel and iron, Barringer in 1902 bought the area and spent a lot of time while trying to find nickel ore. Today, the crater is known as the Barringer Crater, and is privately owned by Barringer family.
How was meteor crater named?
Name of Meteor Crater does not come from words meteoroid, but from the nearby town Meteor. Namely, since the American Committee for Geographic Names commonly performed titles of natural phenomena from the name of the nearest cities with postal code, this crater is by nearby town of Meteor called Meteor Crater. Before that, this crater was known as the Crater of Devil’s Canyon.
Large meteorites fall to Earth on average once every 1,300 years. The largest preserved metoroit who fell to Earth in prehistoric times weighs 60 tons, and is located in Namibia. The second largest, with its 30 tons, fell on western Greenland. Arctic explorer Robert Peary at the end of the 90s of the nineteenth century took it from Greenland this meteorite, which is now in the Museum of Natural History in New York.
Read also about Mount Mazama Crater Lake in Oregon…
Facts about Meteor Crater
No.1 – diameter is 1.186 kilometers (0.737 mi)
No.2 – depth is 180 meters (575 ft)
No.3 – old is 50,000 years
No.4 – fragments are called Canyon Diablo Meteorite
No.5 – outline of crater is squared-off
No.6 – Holsinger meteorite is the largest discovered fragment
No.7 – most of the origin meteorite vaporized on impact
No.8 – it is owned by Barringer family
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