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Meteor Crater - Part 3 of 6

The National Geographic Magazine, June 1928, pp. 720-730:

The Mysterious Tomb Of A Giant Meteorite (by William D. Boutwell)


The Difference Between Meteors And Meteorites

For thirty years, at least, Meteor Crater has been less a bowl than a
football for scientists, professional and amateur, in the fields of
astronomy, geology, physics, engineering, and even ballistics. Most
authorities agree now that the crater is indeed the mark of a gigantic
mass of meteorites. Probably it can be considered the tomb of a small
dead comet.
The "accident" may have happened in this manner: A close-knit mass of
nickel-iron, debris of a burned-out comet, came bowling along the
elliptical course around the sun which it once traveled in a more
brilliant fashion. Its route happened to coincide with that of the earth
- a rare circumstance, indeed. Some hundreds of miles from the earth the
comet may have snagged itself in the gravity net of the planet. The mass
of iron swung in, traveling probably between 25 and 40 miles per second.
Our atmosphere began to put on pressure to reduce the meteorite's
celestial momentum to earth's traffic laws. Terrific speed created
tremendous friction. Rich oxygen in the earth's atmosphere blowtorched
the iron. The dead comet shot downward glowing like a brake shoe.
Earth's deep air cushion of atmosphere was unequal to this juggernaut of
metal, with a diameter variously estimated at from 300 to 500 feet and a
minimum weight of a million tons.
Supersunlight blazed down on desert and mountain for a moment; then
plain and peak shook with a dull, earthquaking thud. Into the air
billowed a cloud of rock dust. Explosions rent the cloud. Jets of steam
shot like geysers through it. Dust billowed again and the wind swept it
far abroad. Clearing air exposed a great circular pockmark in the
grassless desert.
While few incidents in Nature are more dramatic than the arrival of a
meteor, there are few objects of less dramatic appeal than a meteorite.
A meteorite is a meteor come to earth. Meteors pencil the calm of a
starlit sky with streaks of light. Their fire rises quickly to crescendo
and dies. Their usual fate is to perish in the blaze of their own
histrionics. Some escape the clutches of gravity and dash back into the
black alleys of the universe once more. Only occasionally does the end
of a meteor’s arc touch earth, and when some person finds the "pot" of
iron or stone it is always a hideous black thing seared by the fires of
friction. It is hard to believe that the dark-brown, misshapen lumps one
sees in the museums carrying the label "meteorite" are the glorious
night riders of the heavens.
Visitors to the American Museum of Natural History, in New York,
approach that hall of wonders for the first time with a variety of
expectations. They think, perhaps, to walk in upon a collection of
thick-hided prehistoric animals.
Some hope to meet at the door the stuffed representatives of the modern
animal and bird kingdoms. It is with considerable surprise, therefore,
that nearly everyone enters the large elliptical reception hall, the
place of honor, to see not a diplodocus, not bears or birds, not
flowers, not lndian families in wax, not gems or beautiful stones, but a
score of white pedestals, on each of which is a rusty, weathered,
meteorite mass - a meteorite collection.
To the left of the entrance is Peary's Cape York mass, reigning monarch
of meteorites. Yet one must have something of the scientist's love of
abstract facts to work up any enthusiasm over this prize. It is a pitted
mass about as large as an old-fashioned concert grand piano. But no pair
of piano movers could budge it, since this meteorite is solid
nickel-iron and weighs 36 1/2 tons. A view of it does help one
appreciate that gash in the desert near Winslow. Opposite stands one of
the largest meteorites picked up in the vicinity of Meteor Crater, a
roughly spherical blob of metal about the size of a large medicine ball.



Best regards,

Bernd

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