[meteorite-list] Odessa Crater Site Finally Getting Respect It Deserves

From: John Gwilliam <jkg_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:30 2004
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.20020604145534.009b83b0_at_mail.theriver.com>

This is great news...and it's long past due.

Over the past five years, I have stopped and visited the crater several
times when traveling through that part of Texas. The area surrounding the
crater is quite literally, a garbage dump. Needless to say, it was a
depressing thing to witness firsthand. Most of the locals I talked to when
asking for directions to the crater weren't even aware there was a crater
nearby. Hopefully all that will change now.

John


At 12:42 PM 6/4/02 -0700, Ron Baalke wrote:


>http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2288&dept_id=475621&newsid=431
>9596&PAG=461&rfi=9
>
>Odessa crater site finally getting respect it deserves
>By Tumbleweed Smith
>Midland Reporter-Telegram
>June 3, 2002
>
>ODESSA, TEXAS - State legislator Buddy West is responsible for passing a
>bill to create a museum and visitors' center at the meteor crater site.
>
>Finally. That big crater just outside Odessa is getting a little respect.
>State legislator Buddy West is responsible for passing a bill to create a
>museum and visitors' center at the site, complete with living quarters for a
>curator.
>
>For years the crater has been advertised in Chamber of Commerce literature,
>on highway signs and by an occasional newspaper or magazine article. But few
>people ever go there. For one thing, the highway signs don't give good
>directions. The crater is in an isolated oil patch down a small road 15
>miles southwest of Odessa. And who's interested in meteor craters, anyway?
>
>Tom Rodman is. He's an Odessa attorney who is the major spokesman for the
>crater. He has been fascinated with the geological wonder since boyhood
>because he's interested in things from outer space.
>
>"Flying through the air it's a meteor. When it comes to rest on the earth,
>it's a meteorite," said Tom.
>
>Odessa's crater is the second largest meteor crater in the world. Arizona
>has one larger. "Both places contribute more meteorites than any other
>locations in the world," he said.
>
>He said the meteor could have hit the earth 50,000 years ago.
>
>"It weighed about 70 tons and was the size of a small car. It impacted the
>earth with such force and released so much energy that the resulting heat
>and explosion completely vaporized the main mass of the meteorite. It had
>more energy than the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Anything within a few
>miles would have been destroyed."
>
>It made a crater 500 feet wide and 100 feet deep. The University of Texas
>excavated the site in the late 1930s, thinking a huge chunk of the meteorite
>might be buried. But only small fragments were found.
>
>Limestone rocks form the rim of the depression, which over the years has
>been filled in with sand and silt. Tom helped construct rock-lined caliche
>paths around the crater. He spends countless hours at the site and wonders
>why others don't have the same boyish enthusiasm for it as he does. Tom said
>scientists believe some meteorites came from the moon or Mars.
>
>A small museum was built at the crater site in 1963 but people were breaking
>into it and stealing the valuable, irreplaceable meteorites inside. The
>museum was closed and the collection of meteorites was moved to the Ector
>County library. The new museum has added more meteorites collected from
>several sources.
>
>The site was discovered in the 1920s when a rancher found a fist-sized
>metallic rock, composed mostly of iron and nickel. One astronomer said it
>came from the core of a planet that had to be about 4 billion years old and
>several hundred miles in diameter, creating speculation that the planet may
>have exploded, sending debris into the universe.
>
>"You wonder what it must have been like when it hit. You also wonder what
>destruction would have occurred had it hit in modern times," said Tom.
>
>-- -- --
>
>Tumbleweed Smith is a Big Spring storyteller and folklorist.
>
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Received on Tue 04 Jun 2002 06:02:33 PM PDT