This is the Barringer Meteor Crater, outside Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s the result of a 300,000 ton meteor coliding with the Earth around 50,000 years ago. The crater is about 1.5 kilometers in diameter and 170 metres deep. It was the first feature on Earth to be recognized as an impact crater, and remains one of the best preserved examples. Also, the end of the movie ‘Starman‘, was filmed here.

Unfortunately, it just missed being captured in high resolution, but you can really get a sense of how big it is, as you can still see it at zoom level 9! The site appears to have two websites devoted to it and I can’t work out which one to link to, so you can take your pick

P.S. Our apologies for the slow speed of the site at the moment, we got slashdotted!

Thanks to (bloody hell, this is a lot of people) Brad, Paul, Richard, Azul, Brian Ralli, Alan Levine, David Stever, Rong Ou, Pagaladhmi, Stilt, Michael Bernstein (who nearly didn’t get a mention for being impatient! ), J Ashley, Jordan Dawe, Dr. Lobo, Stan, David Pollack, Mark Hardman, Brian Johnson, phil, Penguinista, Paul Leman, mark p, Troy Arnold, Andy M, khalid, Russell Borogove, jher, Bob Berkey, Matt Van Pelt, Roger, Mikhail, Scott Steg, Ray Bellis, Steve Bryson, Mike, Joel Riggs, Jake, TSG, Atif, Don S, Keith Belcher, Edwin van Slingerlandt, Ken Hsin, Adam Sanders, Steve Ransom, David de Hora and finally Tim.

Someone with sharp eyes spotted this F-14 Tomcat off the coast of North Carolina.

Thanks: André Jodoin

This massive structure is apparently a US Air Force test stand and is one of the world’s largest wooden structure. Military planes are parked on it and their resistance to things like lightning and EMP are tested (Or maybe they drive stunt cars really fast off the end for fun…). I couldn’t find much more information about this on the ‘net, so if you find any post it here.

Update: This website describes some of the other sights at Kirtland Air Force Base. Including rocket sled, crazy solar power experiments and more.

Thanks: Ned Hastings & Chris

Some of you more perceptive readers may have noticed that I’m seriously lacking on the post count front. I think James has managed 105, whilst I’m on a measly 35. My reason (excuse) for this is that I’m working on using the latest bleeding-edge web technologies to improve your sightseeing experience. To this end, the map now works flawlessly in Internet Explorer, updates even faster, has much more informative title text and has a google style ‘link to this page’ link.

Somewhere in the middle of Utah we find this giant writing overlaying the photograph (make sure to zoom right in - it’s very big). The text reads “40 NAIP03 01026-44″ so appears to be a unique tag for that section of the map and has been warped by the process of stitching the image to the adjacent photos.

Again in Utah there is a similar site although this second example has been partially obscured by the image tile above.

Thanks: Tony & Steve

Île Notre-Dame is an artificial island on the Saint Lawrence River and is part of the city of Montreal. Along with Île Ste-Hélène the island hosted Expo 67, for which Île Notre-Dame was built using earth excavated for the Montreal metro in 1965.

To the east of the island is a long rowing basin built for Montreal’s 1976 Summer Olympics which is still the biggest artificial rowing basin in North America. You can see quite a few boats in the basin and there are a couple more moored at the north end. In winter the basin is also used as an ice rink.

In the middle of the island is the Casino de Montréal, built in former the Expo pavillions of France and Quebec. Around the edge of the island is the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which is used once a year for the Canadian Grand Prix Formula 1 racing.

Thanks: Jonathan Cote, Kristian & Twombly