The size of Arizona’s Meteor Crater boggles the mind
No two ways about it – this was the biggest hole in the ground I’ve ever seen and likely ever will. Exactly how big was hard to grasp, even though I was gazing right into the humungous opening in the Arizona desert. I knew how it got there – a meteor collided with Earth 50,000 years ago and the resulting explosion created what is now called Meteor Crater. I knew the stats: the impact le a crater nearly a mile across, our guide Derek told us as we started our walking tour around the rim of this intriguing site 56 kilometres east of Flagsta . More measurements followed: the crater is 3.8 kilometres in circumference and 550 feet (almost 168 metres) deep. en Derek put the matter in perspective. A 60-storey building could rest on the crater’s oor and not reach the rim, he told us. What’s more, there’s room on the crater walls for two million fans to watch 20 football games being played simultaneously on the crater oor. Point made. Yet size is not what sets this crater apart; there are many much larger ones around the world. “Our claim to fame is that we’re much better preserved,” Derek said. And the rst proven meteorite impact site on planet Earth, as noted on the pamphlet given out at the admission building. More of the crater’s story unfolded during our 45-minute walk around the rim. Apparently there is evidence of Native Americans referring to the crater; however, it was 1871 before the rst written report was made and that was by a man named Franklin who was a scout with General Custer.
For years the crater was called Franklin’s Hole.
Local settlers later called it Coon Butte and it was thought to be just another extinct volcano, maybe part of the Hopi Buttes volcanic eld to the northeast. In 1891 a sheep herder reported nding iron nickel meteorites, which eventually led to some scientists suggesting a giant meteorite formed the crater. at same year a Philadelphia scientist named Dr. A.E. Foote visited the crater, taking samples home to study. He found tiny diamonds in some, indicating tremendous pressure on their creation. He never speculated on the crater’s origin, but his analysis spurred the chief geologist of the United States Geological Survey, G.K. Gilbert, to visit the crater brie y. Dr. Gilbert mistakenly interpreted the eld evidence there and concluded it was volcanic in origin. en in 1902 a Philadelphia mining engineer named Daniel Barringer took an interest to the site as a potential source for mining iron. On visiting the crater he was convinced the impact of a large iron meteorite caused it and that this body was buried beneath the crater oor. He formed the Standard Iron Company, staked four placer claims and spent the next 27 years drilling for the giant iron deposit he thought was there.
Barringer was correct on the rst point. His research, which among other things noted the upli ed strata around the crater, supported his theory as to how the crater was formed. Unfortunately he had no way of knowing the meteor had disintegrated on impact and therefore no iron deposit awaited him. He went broke and closed up in 1929. Although he died later that year, he lived to see some acceptance of his theory of impact origin. However, it wasn’t completely accepted until 1960, when Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, former Chief of the Astrogeology Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagsta , proved beyond doubt the crater was the product of a giant impact. I gured Meteor Crater would be a federal or state park, but no, this attraction has been family owned and operated for more than 100 years. In 1941, the Barringer family entered into a lease with Bar T Bar Ranch Company, a longtime cattle operation in the surrounding lands. In 1955 the company formed a separate corporation, Meteor Crater Enterprises, Inc. and entered into a long-term lease with the Barringers, who still own the land. All the facilities at Meteor Crater were built, maintained and are sta ed by the Enterprises.