[meteorite-list] NP Article 08-1929 Mining Meteor Crater Will Give Answer

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:51 2004
Message-ID: <OE600goZolmRBaYFkuu000207dd_at_hotmail.com>

Paper: The Zanesville Signal
City: Zanesville, OH
Date: Sunday, August 18, 1929
Page: Section 2, Page 11

MINERS BORING TOWARD SOLUTION OF GIANT CRATER
Believe Giant Crater in Arizona Was Caused by Meteor: Will Mine Iron

     Winslow, Ariz., Aug. 17. - (AP) - One of the great scientific mysteries
of modern times - whether a crater nearly a mile wide at Coone Butte, Ariz.,
was made by a volcano or by a meteorite hitting the earth - is reported to
be on the verge of solution.
     Miners employed by D. M. Barringer of Philadelphia claim to have
located, 1400 feet under ground, a mass of iron, believed to be a meteor.
     They are down 1600 feet in a shaft which is being bored to come up
underneath this iron so it may be mined. Borings with diamond drills have
led to predictions that the buried body is 90 per cent iron, 7 per cent
nickel, with slight traces of platinum and iridium.
     The present shaft is the culmination of plans begun a quarter of a
century ago by Barringer. He is credited with being the first man to cite
scientific evidence that the crater is of meteoric origin. It is 4,000 feet
from rim to rim, its walls 120 to 160 feet above, and its bottom 600 feet
below the surrounding plateau.
     Since then, many examinations have been made, about 30 different holes
drilled in the crater bottom, and one 200-foot shaft sunk, but producing
only some bits of meteoric iron.
     Barringer's workmen say that previous failures to find the meteor are
explained by the evidence of their drills that the main body lies not
directly beneath the crater, but about 1600 feet south of it.
     Astronomers have estimated that the meteorite weighed 10,000,000 tons
and was 500 feet in diameter.
     The question of whether a volcano made the crater was raised not only
by failure to find a buried meteor, but by appearences that rocks have been
ejected by some force closely resembling volcanic power. Scattered about
the crater have been found numerous small iron meteorites.
     One theory has been that a flight of small meteorites accompanied the
giant. Another is that the plunge of the giant generated such heat and
instant steam in deep buried earth moisture that the hole spouted
temporarily like a volcano.
Received on Wed 26 Mar 2003 01:42:50 PM PST