The Best-Preserved Meteor Crater on Earth Is Just 35 Miles from Flagstaff, Arizona

Meteor Crater, Arizona

The first thing that hits you about Meteor Crater is how impossibly round it looks. This isn’t some gradual dip in the landscape or worn down valley.

Something fast and deadly carved this perfect circle into the Arizona desert, and scientists spent decades arguing about what could punch such a clean hole in solid rock.

This is the story of that cosmic collision.

The Asteroid That Created a Mile-Wide Hole

A 150-foot-wide iron-nickel asteroid weighing 300,000 tons crashed into Arizona 50,000 years ago. Traveling at 28,600 miles per hour, it hit with the force of 2.5 million tons of TNT.

This explosion packed 150 times more power than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The tremendous heat and pressure instantly vaporized most of the space rock, scattering only small fragments across the landscape.

The Pleistocene Landscape Before Impact

The asteroid struck during the Middle Pleistocene epoch, in the Wisconsin glaciation period of the last ice age. Arizona was much cooler and wetter then, covered with juniper-pinyon woodlands and grasslands.

Columbian mammoths stood 13 feet tall at the shoulder. Ancient bison, prehistoric camels, and giant ground sloths as large as elephants roamed the area. Humans had not yet reached North America.

How the Explosion Transformed the Land

The impact carved out 175 million tons of rock in seconds. The blast flipped rock layers upside down for up to two kilometers from the crater’s edge, exposing deep underground rocks on the surface.

Wind speeds exceeded 1,000 kilometers per hour within five kilometers of impact. Everything at ground zero vanished instantly, while the air blast flattened trees and stripped vegetation for miles around.

Albert Foote Discovers Meteorite Fragments

In 1891, railroad workers building tracks near the crater gave mineralogist Albert E. Foote an unusual iron rock. Foote recognized it as a meteorite and organized an expedition to collect more pieces.

His team found fragments ranging from tiny bits to 600-pound chunks. These iron-nickel meteorites contained microscopic diamonds formed by the impact’s extreme pressure. Foote wrote the first scientific paper about the Arizona meteorites but didn’t connect them to the crater.

Foote wrote the first scientific paper about the Arizona meteorites but didn’t connect them to the crater.

Grove Karl Gilbert’s Volcanic Theory

Grove Karl Gilbert, the top U.S. Geological Survey geologist, investigated the crater in November 1891. He conducted magnetic surveys looking for buried iron but found none.

Gilbert concluded the crater came from a volcanic steam explosion, not a meteorite impact. This seemed reasonable since the San Francisco volcanic field sits just 20 miles away.

His reputation was so strong that other scientists didn’t dare question his theory for decades.

Daniel Barringer Stakes His Claim

In 1902, mining engineer Daniel Barringer heard about the crater from Forest Service agent Samuel Holsinger. The Princeton graduate had already made his fortune from Arizona’s Commonwealth silver mine.

Barringer believed the crater came from a meteorite impact. On March 15, 1903, he formed the Standard Iron Company to mine what he thought was a massive iron meteorite buried below.

President Theodore Roosevelt signed his mining patents on December 24, 1903.

The Search for a Billion-Dollar Meteorite

Barringer calculated that a 10-million-ton iron meteorite created the crater. At $125 per ton, this would be worth over a billion 1903 dollars.

He drilled extensively from 1903 to 1922, reaching depths of 1,376 feet. The final drilling cost nearly $200,000 instead of the planned $75,000.

By 1928, Barringer had spent $500,000 of his fortune searching for iron that had actually vaporized on impact.

Eugene Shoemaker Proves Impact Origin

In the late 1950s, geologist Eugene Shoemaker studied the crater for his Princeton doctorate. He compared it to nuclear test craters in Nevada and found striking similarities.

In 1960, Shoemaker and Edward Chao discovered coesite and stishovite in crater rocks. These high-pressure minerals only form during meteorite impacts or nuclear explosions.

Their findings, published in Science in July 1960, finally proved Barringer was right about the impact origin.

The Crater’s Role in Apollo Astronaut Training

NASA used Meteor Crater to train Apollo astronauts in the 1960s because its terrain looked similar to the Moon’s surface. The U.S. Geological Survey established their Astrogeology Science Center in nearby Flagstaff in 1963.

Eugene Shoemaker personally trained astronauts during a notable field trip on May 16-19, 1967. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and other Apollo crew members learned to identify impact features.

A test capsule from Apollo 11 is now displayed at the visitor center.

Barringer Family Legacy and the Crater Today

The Barringer family still owns the crater through their Barringer Crater Company. In 1982, the Meteoritical Society created the Barringer Medal for impact crater research. The family started a student research fund in 2002.

Eugene Shoemaker’s ashes were carried to the Moon on NASA’s Lunar Prospector in 1999, making him the only person “buried” there.

Today, NASA trains Artemis astronauts at the crater. The 1,406-pound Holsinger Meteorite is the largest fragment ever found.

Visiting Meteor Crater

Meteor Crater welcomes visitors daily off Interstate 40 and historic Route 66 between Flagstaff and Winslow.

The visitor center features a cutting-edge 4D experience room that simulates the impact. A wide-screen theater shows educational films about the crater’s formation and significance.

The Meteor Crater Rim Tour takes visitors along the crater’s edge, where expert guides explain key features visible from the rim, including the depth, diameter, and geological layers exposed by the impact.

Inside the Discovery Center, guests can see and touch actual meteorite fragments.

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