Barringer Meteor Crater
Wednesday, 8th June 2005 by Alex Turnbull
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.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Sorry about the slashdotting! I vist /. a few times a day and I saw the link here and clicked on it and the site was down. Could you post some stats about how many people actually visited? It is rather amusing.
Can anyone explain what the cities in the middle of nowhere are doing?
Low res, ouch! Still, it’s an amazing site! I wonder what other craters are out there to find….
Also, it’s hardly fair to say it’s viewable at zoom level 9. It’s a speck that you know is the meteor if you gradually zoom out, yes, but if you looked at it on level 9, you would not say “Hey look, a meteor!”.. I think it’s safe to say it’s viewable on Level 8, but just barely.. Level 7 is when it starts to become very clear. Still gargantuan, of course, I’m just saying…
Every time our school astronomy teacher mentioned this he’d go into a rant about American astronomers being too stupid to know the difference between a meteor and a meteorite (a meteor burns up before hitting the ground – in space they’re called meteoroids).
You guys can see a meteorite?? All I can see is a big crater.
I used to live in ABQ, NM and drove a long way just to see it and they wanted a small fortune for admission.. so i rented a single engine plane and flew all around and down into it while I flipped off the cashier! Why must we pay to admire something that was not man made?!
Winterfresh asks “I wonder what other craters are out there to find…”
Funny you should ask that, just an hour ago I submitted several Australian meteorite impact craters. much older than this one, but still recognisable. A couple of teasers:
Shoemaker crater, WA. 30km diameter 1630 million years old.
Grosses Bluff in the territory. 22km in diameter, 142.5 million years old.
Hi p G’night