Meteor Crater, Arizona

Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is a meteorite impact crater about 37 mi (60 km) east of Flagstaff and 18 mi (29 km) west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona. It is about 3,900 ft (1,200 m) in diameter, some 560 ft (170 m) deep, and is surrounded by a rim that rises 148 ft (45 m) above the surrounding plains. The centre of the crater is filled with 690–790 ft (210–240 m) of rubble lying above crater bedrock. It is privately owned by the Barringer family. There is a visitor and information centre on the rim of the crater and several viewing platforms. During the 1960s and 1970s, NASA astronauts trained in the crater to prepare for the Apollo missions to the moon.

The crater was created about 50,000 years ago when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and damper. The area was an open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by mammoths and giant ground sloths.

The object that excavated the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite about 160 ft (50 m) across. Recent research suggests the impact was at 29,000 mph (12.8 km/s). About half of the meteorite’s bulk is believed to have been vapourized during its descent through the atmosphere. Impact energy has been estimated at 10 megatons TNT. The meteorite was mostly vaporized upon impact, leaving few remains in the crater.

APOLOGIES for the poor photo quality - some taken as snapshots from an old video!