Meteor Crater

Meteor Crater (Barringer Meteorite Crater) formed 50,000 years ago when an asteroid plunged through the Earth’s atmosphere and crashed into what would become central Arizona. Because of the crater’s young age and the dry climate Meteor Crater is the best preserved impact crater on Earth. No humans were living in the region when the impact occurred. The asteroid was small in astronomical terms just a 150 feet (45.7 m) across. Traveling at around 8 miles per second (12.8 kps) the force of the asteroid impact on the ground was tremendous. In just a few seconds millions of tons of rock were flipped over and the great chasm was excavated.

Meteor Crater is 3900 feet (1200m) across. By comparison with craters we find on other bodies in our solar system it is very small. Yet it was formed in an explosion estimated to be equal to 10 million tons of TNT. The mammoths and other giant land creatures of the last ice age could not have guessed what was to happen when they turned to see the blinding light of the asteroid’s approach. Everything was destroyed in the area around the impact for miles. Shock waves moved through the ground like an earthquake for a greater distance. The rocks which had been flat layers before the impact were thrown up to form the rim and shattered. There has been some erosion since the formation of the crater. It has lost around 20 feet (6 m) of it elevation on the rim and the bottom has filled with about 200-250 feet (60-76 m) of rubble and sand. For a very long time immediately after the impact the crater was a lake. There are 90 feet (27 m) of lake deposits on the floor of the crater today.
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