[meteorite-list] Arizona Meteor Crater Holds Deep Fascination
From: Larry Lebofsky <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 6 00:53:16 2006 Message-ID: <1144271008.443430a0b5f07_at_hindmost.LPL.Arizona.EDU> Hi all: I caught at least one really big mistake in this article. Larry Quoting Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>: > > http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3673333 > > Ariz. meteor crater holds deep fascination > By Rich Tosches > Denver Post > April 5, 2006 > > There is a hole in the ground near this ghost town on the desert > plateau, a place where the Rocky Mountains become little more than > small, rocky hills. > > The hole is 550 feet deep and 4,000 feet across. As you stand on the rim > of the crater and gaze into its red sandstone depths, you can't help but > imagine that day, once upon a time, when something almost unthinkable > happened in this place. > > The first known written note about the crater was penned in 1871 by a > scout for Gen. George Armstrong Custer. > > For decades after word got out, scientists studied the hole. Some > believed a volcano was the culprit. Others thought it was the work of a > meteor. (Today, a smaller group clings to a third compelling theory that > involves baseball star Barry Bonds dropping a dumbbell on his way to > spring training 200 miles south in Scottsdale.) > > Turns out the meteor theory was the right one. It came, scientists say, > some 50 million years ago, a 150-foot-wide bundle of iron and nickel > weighing several hundred thousand tons, burning through the sky and > slamming into our planet at some 40,000 mph. > > And out here on the dusty land in north-central Arizona where lizards > now scamper and the occasional jackrabbit races across the sand, woolly > mammoths died on that very loud day. > > All of which is not lost on Carolyn Sprinkles, who works in the gift > shop at Meteor Crater and sells, among other things, small packets > labeled "fossilized dung" for $1.25 each. > > "I walk by that hole out there all the time and I'm always in awe," said > Sprinkles, who just began her third year working at the tourist > attraction and living in an RV just down the road from the crater, an RV > she shares with her husband, who works in the Meteor Crater ticket booth. > > The hole in the ground is owned mostly by the family of the man who > spent a large chunk of his life down inside the crater. Daniel > Barringer, a mining engineer from Pennsylvania, became dazzled by the > site in the early 1900s and spent decades drilling holes in the bottom > of the crater. He thought he'd find the "great ball of iron" that made > the depression. He found nothing. > > In 1929, a final drill bit became stuck in the ground at a depth of > 1,376 feet. Then the drill cable broke. Then Barringer ran out of money. > And time. He died later that same year. > > Today, the Barringer family has a partnership with the Bar T Bar Ranch, > a cattle operation that was started here in the 1880s. In 1955, the > ranch owners formed Meteor Crater Enterprises, Inc. > > Goodbye cows. > > Hello gift shop and ticket booth. > > While most of the meteor that hit at what is officially known as the > Barrington Meteor Crater vaporized upon impact, many pieces remained. > The largest known chunk weighs over 1,400 pounds and is on display at > the Crater Museum, near the gift shop. And before Barrington sealed off > the area for his drilling work, reports indicated that settlers carted > off hundreds and perhaps thousands of tons of the meteor's iron. > > Miners, reports indicate, loaded as much as 20 tons of meteor fragments > onto trains bound for smelting facilities in Texas where it was made > into tools. > > NASA, which used the Arizona crater to train Apollo astronauts, says the > hole is the first to ever be positively identified as an impact crater > and calls it "the best preserved crater on Earth." > > Which makes Carolyn Sprinkles smile. And makes longtime Texas high > school principal Bill Cranfill proud. > > "I live here at the crater, in one of those apartments right there," > said the retired educator, now the manager of the facility, pointing > across the parking lot to a row of crater housing units where he has > lived for the past five years. "In the summer we'll get 1,500 people a > day, seven days a week." > > But this odd place on a remote plateau 40 miles east of Flagstaff is, > for Cranfill, more than just a tourist site. > > "For five years now, whenever I get a minute," he said, "I stand on the > rim of that hole. And I just try to imagine what happened that day." > > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > -- Dr. Larry A. Lebofsky Senior Research Scientist Co-editor, Meteorite "If you give a man a fish, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory you feed him for a day. 1541 East University If you teach a man to fish, University of Arizona you feed him for a lifetime." Tucson, AZ 85721-0063 ~Chinese Proverb Phone: 520-621-6947 FAX: 520-621-8364 e-mail: lebofsky_at_lpl.arizona.eduReceived on Wed 05 Apr 2006 05:03:28 PM PDT |
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