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Meteor Crater - Part 4 of 6

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

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

Mystery Still Surrounds The Crater

Meteor Crater itself holds an audience better than the museum pieces,
for its story is still overlaid with mystery. The bold evidence of the
meteorite's arrival is spread for any eyes. Samples of it are scattered
by the ton on the surrounding plain, where Winslow residents hunt them
on a holiday much as boys search for Indian arrowheads. The dimensions
of the mass have been figured by experts in ballistics.
Much money has been spent to drill holes and tunnels for this meteorite.
In 1922 drillers struck something hard that seized their drill and held
it. Yet no man can say for certain that the main mass of the meteorite
is in such a place, at such a depth, and is of such and such size. The
unraveling of this mystery is a real challenge, for its solution would
mark a redletter year for science.
Hunting for the body of the meteorite began in 1906. The history of
these operations and the results have been reported in brief as follows:
A shaft was sunk directly in the center of the crater, where there had
been a small lake bed at one time. Quicksand made it impossible to
continue the shaft; so the crater floor was drilled at various other
points. Iron-stained sand was the only product of this work.
Then geologists began to examine the crater walls more in detail. They
observed that the tilted angle of the rock strata varied. On the south
side it was raised nearly 90 degrees; on the north side no more than 5
degrees from the horizontal. They noticed that the tilt was
progressively greater on both sides from north to south; also, that a
whole 2,000-foot sector of the southern wall was lifted vertically about
100 feet. From this and other evidence the conclusion was reached that
the mass of the meteorite struck from the north at an angle, crashed
through the limestone and sandstone, and imbedded itself in a harder red
sandstone at a point under the south wall of the crater.
The present derrick was erected on the south rim, therefore, and
drillers recommenced work in 1920. Shattered and torn rock made the work
difficult. At 300 feet the drill was lost. No amount of fishing could
retrieve it. So a drift shaft more than 300 feet long was dug in the
inner wall of the crater to get the drill.
A surprising discovery was made when the laborers completely cut through
the slope of rock debris and reached the actual rock wall. Fast in the
wall they found two shale balls consisting of oxidized meteoric iron. It
is thought that following close upon the heels of the main body of the
little comet was a "tail" of smaller pieces of iron, some of which
lodged against the crater wall, where the drift shaft exposed them, and
some of which distributed themselves broadly on the surrounding plain.


Best wishes,

Bernd

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