[meteorite-list] Landmark's Fame Had Meteoric Rise (Meteor Crater)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Dec 5 22:29:57 2004
Message-ID: <200412060329.TAA20665_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=32644

Landmark's fame had meteoric rise
By Paul Giblin
East Valley Tribune (Arizona)
December 5, 2004

METEOR CRATER - Philadelphia mining engineer Daniel Moreau Barringer
heard about a deep circular hole in northern Arizona one day in 1902.
That bit of information marked the start of one of the most bizarre
adventures in Arizona history.

Until that time, the mysterious hole had gone by a variety of names -
Jackson's Hole, Coon Butte and Coon Mountain, among them. It also had
been the subject of scientific debate for years.

There was no question that the depression 35 miles east of Flagstaff is
an unusual landmark in the otherwise flat, rocky plains of the region.

The hole is three-quarters of a mile wide and 550 feet deep. It's
surrounded by a rocky ridge that extends upward as high as 150 feet.

Fanciful folks speculated that a giant rock from space had crashed into
the earth, creating an impact crater.

Reasoned people thought otherwise. They agreed with Grove Karl Gilbert,
chief geologist of the U.S. Geological Survey, who determined in 1891
that the hole was caused by a burst of volcanic steam.

Barringer was stunned to learn that small meteorites had been found near
the hole.

"That must be impossible! If true, why have I not heard of this
remarkable phenomenon before?" a friend recalled him saying, according
to the Barringer Crater Co.

Barringer guessed that a nickel-iron meteorite about the size of the
hole had created the crater. He quickly secured mining rights.

"He thought he had found himself a gold mine - in this case, a meteorite
mine," Eduardo Rubio, the head tour guide at the crater, said last week.
"It was worth as much as gold is today."

Starting in 1903, Barringer began drilling at the center of the crater,
certain he would strike iron buried below. During years of exploration,
he came across a few meteoritic fragments, but mostly quicksand.

Eventually, he changed his strategy. He concluded that since the ridges
on the south side of the crater are higher than elsewhere, the meteorite
struck from the north and was buried under the south edge. He drilled
again, but with the same results.

By 1929, the beginning of the Depression, Barringer was nearly broke. He
gave up and returned to Philadelphia, where he died of a heart attack
the same year. Still, the story had a happy ending, Rubio said.

"He dies rich just by knowing that he has finally started convincing his
colleagues, his peers, that in fact, this crater was of meteoritic
origin," he said.

Scientists filled in the details later. The meteorite was about 150 feet
long and weighed 300,000 pounds. It crashed 50,000 years ago and
fragmented on impact, leaving specks on the rims and under the south edge.

Barringer's descendants own Meteor Crater, which is open for tours.
Received on Sun 05 Dec 2004 10:29:52 PM PST