As we were driving to see the Grand Canyon we came upon this "little hole" in the ground. After miles of desert we needed to stop. It was a nice break and quite interesting. The rim of the meteor crater is about 150 feet around. The crater is about a mile wide and over 570 feet deep. There are boulders around the top that are the size of small houses. The force the impact made is said the be about the force of 2.5 megatons of TNT or 150 X the bomb destructive power that hit Hiroshima.
http://www.barringercrater.com/science has more information on the science.
The one photo above is the largest fragment they could find of the meteorite. Most of it is dust or small pieces - some molten. If you read the sited page you'll find at first they thought this was a volcano and it took a few geologists to change the thinking to meteor. The thinking is that the meteor must have been about 150 feet big originally.
We THOUGHT this was a BIG hole until we saw the Grand Canyon. This is SMALL compared to the Canyon..
Chris
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2 comments:
Interesting.... sorry I couldn't think of another word so I stole DeEtta's comment (LOL)! I do find those types of things interesting.
Great pics, Chris. That part of the country is so stunning, stark. It usually reminds me of Dr. Seuss in its, um, differentness.
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