Meteorite Crater Facts

  • In 1871, Mr. Franklin was a scout for General Custer. He made the first written report about the meteorite crater.
  • Native Indians knew about it first.
  • In 1902, an engineer named Mr. Barringer began studying the crater.
  • The crater was first called Franklin’s Hole, but was later renamed Barringer Meteorite Crater.
  • The meteorite struck the Earth 35 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, about 50,000 years ago. In space, the meteorite weighed 300,000 tons and it traveled at about 40,000 miles per hour. On impact with earth, only 1/10 of the meteorite survived. Part of the meteorite got burnt up and part of it got buried thousands of feet in the earth. It scattered about 30 tons of nickel-iron over an 8 to 10 mile diameter. The force of its impact would be similar to exploding 20 million tons of TNT (explosives).
  • The meteorite crater is about 1 mile across and over 570 feet deep. The Barringer Meteorite Crater is one of the most studied meteorite craters in the world.
*Learn more about the Barringer Meteorite Crater at: www.barringercrater.com

* Author’s Note About the Hijab-Ez Friends’ visit to Meteorite Crater: The actual Barringer Crater doesn’t have large finger-pointing signs or fifteen paths to the crater edge. It is a wonderful place to visit, and the description of the earth and sky seemingly meeting each other is breathtaking to see, as are the jutting boulders inside the crater.

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