[meteorite-list] Arizona's Meteor Crater Is Now Money Pit

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jul 18 00:24:32 2005
Message-ID: <200507180408.j6I488O29899_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=travel&article_path=/travel/travel050717_1.htm

Arizona's Meteor Crater is now money pit
by Austin Richardson
The Durango Herald (Colorado)
July 17, 2005

If you're averse to tourist traps, the approach to Meteor Crater will
probably inspire fear. But brave the parking lot full of RVs, the hordes
of tourists and the intense Arizona sun - the trip is worthwhile.

After exiting Interstate 40, 35 miles east of Flagstaff, the road toward
Meteor Crater ends in a slight uphill. The gentle rise stands out only
because of the large concrete building on the hillside. From atop that
hill, the view is awe-inspiring. The crater is 60 stories deep,
three-quarters of a mile across and almost 2.5 miles in circumference.
It's quickly obvious why Meteor Crater attracts more than 300,000
visitors every year.

Meteor Crater is all about that view, and about marveling at the violent
forces in the universe that combined to create it.

The visitors center is open year-round and houses a museum, theater,
gift shop and even a Subway restaurant. But it's merely a sideshow to
the natural wonder outside.

The site is privately owned by the descendants of Daniel Moreau
Barringer, who came to the area in the early 1900s to mine the meteor's
remnants, which he hoped would be rich in iron ore.

At the time, most geologists believed that Meteor Crater was formed by
volcanic activity, not by a rock from space. Barringer was right about
the crater's origins - but he didn't know the meteor vaporized during
impact, and mined for over 25 years, discovering nothing.

Barringer's family converted Meteor Crater into a tourist attraction in
1942, when the first visitors center was built, charging 25 cents for
admission. By doing so, family members seem to have converted the site
into a gold mine in the way their ancestor never could.

It actually wasn't until the 1960s that Dr. Eugene Shoemaker proved that
the crater formed by an impact of colossal proportions. The U.S.
Geological Survey and NASA subsequently trained the Apollo astronauts at
Meteor Crater in order to heighten their understanding of the moon's
topography.

NASA continues to use Meteor Crater as a proving ground, even to test
spacesuits for the human exploration of Mars.

Scientists guess that a meteor only 150 feet wide excavated the massive
cavity, meaning that it had to be traveling at over 30,000 mph before
impact. The explosive force of the collision was greater than 20 million
tons of TNT.

The little bit of meteor that did not vaporize on impact either broke
off as it plummeted through the atmosphere or was ejected miles away by
the force of the impact.

Inside the visitors center, you can see one of the fragments that
reached Earth intact. The Holsinger Meteorite, as it's called, is no
bigger than a small lawnmower but is dense in iron and nickel, and
weighs over 1,400 pounds.

The dry, hot desert climate that may scare away some visitors is the
very reason the crater has remained intact - its appearance almost
exactly as it was immediately after impact.

A tour is the best way to appreciate the crater, and no one is allowed
on the crater rim without a guide and closed-toed shoes. The tour loop
is 1 mile, and takes visitors out to a spot named "Picture Rock."

Tours leave every hour at a quarter past, though they are sometimes
canceled due to high winds. The wind can be so intense, in fact, that it
sometimes surpasses 100 mph.

If the tour seems like too much of a diversion, you can walk up to a
viewing platform above the visitors center, which offers its own
spectacular view.

The museum is interesting, though most of its exhibits can be found in
the space section of any good natural history museum. The theater shows
a short film twice every hour entitled "Collisions and Impacts." Though
brief, the film adds greatly to one's appreciation of the natural forces
that created Meteor Crater.
Received on Mon 18 Jul 2005 12:08:08 AM PDT