Meteor Crater, AZ
Meteor Crater happened to be along the way from the Grand Canyon to my sister’s house in El Paso. It’s only a few miles off the interstate so we made a side trip to go see it. It cost $16 per person, but we thought it was worth it. This included two short movies, a presentation by a tour guide, the museum, and viewing the crater itself.
It is estimated that the meteor was about 150 feet in length and weighed several hundred thousand tons. The original crater was about 700 feet deep and 4000 feet wide. Now, the crater is about 550 feet deep.
It was really interesting to hear how it was originally thought to be of volcanic origin. Thereafter, a mining engineer believed it was actually a meteor crater, but erroneously believed it was buried in the crater and that if it could be dug up could be mined for iron. Finally, it was realized that it had disintegrated upon impact, but there are still mine shafts and remnants of the mining equipment used.
Scientific studies are still ongoing here, and the crater was even used as an astronaut training ground.
