Meteor Crater

Meteor Crater, also called Barringer Crater, is an impact crater in northern Arizona, about 37 miles east of Flagstaff and 18 miles west of Winslow. It was formed roughly 50,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene, when a nickel-iron meteorite about 160 feet across, remembered today through the Canyon Diablo Meteorite fragments it left behind, struck the Colorado Plateau at an estimated 29,000 miles per hour with the force of about 10 megatons; roughly half of the impactor's bulk is thought to have vaporized during its fall through the atmosphere. The crater measures about 3,900 feet across and 560 feet deep, with a rim rising 148 feet above the surrounding plain and a floor filled by 690 to 790 feet of rubble. Recognized by the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the American Museum of Natural History as the best-preserved meteorite crater on Earth, it was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1967 and remains privately owned by the Barringer family.