Meteor Crater

Meteor Crater
Name	Meteor Crater
Other names	Barringer Crater, Canyon Diablo Crater
Caption	Aerial view of the crater rim
Location	near Winslow, Arizona, Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates	35°01′45″N 111°01′43″W
Country	United States
State	Arizona
Type	Impact crater
Diameter	1.2 km
Depth	170 m
Discovered	19th century
Excavations	Daniel Moreau Barringer

Meteor Crater is a well-preserved impact structure in the Colorado Plateau of northern Arizona, approximately 37 km west of Winslow, Arizona and 64 km east of Flagstaff, Arizona. The crater has been central to debates involving planetary science, mineralogy, and stratigraphy, and played a pivotal role in the development of impact theory that linked terrestrial structures to extraterrestrial events. It remains a type site for shock metamorphism, ejecta studies, and impact mechanics used across Lunar and Planetary Science research.

Overview

The feature lies within the geologic framework of the Coconino Plateau near the boundary of Navajo Nation lands and the Coconino National Forest. The rim exposes Permian and Cretaceous strata, including the Kaibab Limestone, Toroweap Formation, Coconino Sandstone, and underlying Supai Group units, juxtaposed against impacted Basin and Range Province blocks. Nearby human settlements include Flagstaff, Arizona, Winslow, Arizona, Holbrook, Arizona, and transport corridors such as Interstate 40 and historic U.S. Route 66. The site’s prominence in popular culture and education links it to museums and institutions like the Smithsonian Institution, American Museum of Natural History, Arizona State University, and the University of Arizona.

Formation and Geology

The crater formed when an iron meteorite struck the Earth's surface, producing a bowl-shaped depression surrounded by a raised rim and continuous ejecta blanket. Stratigraphic sections exposed at the rim include Permian Kaibab Limestone and Coconino Sandstone units that record paleoenvironmental conditions also studied at sites like the Grand Canyon National Park and the Petrified Forest National Park. Shock features such as shatter cones, planar deformation features in quartz, and high-pressure mineral phases were documented and compared with evidence from the Chicxulub crater, Vredefort crater, and Sudbury Basin. Impact modeling used analogs from the Moon, Mars, and impact basins visited by missions like Apollo 11, Viking program, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to refine estimates of impact energy, ejecta distribution, and transient cavity collapse.

Scientific Investigations and Dating

Early studies by geologists including Daniel Moreau Barringer, Grove Karl Gilbert, and later researchers at institutions such as Harvard University, Caltech, and Stanford University debated origins as volcanic versus impact. Petrographic analysis identifying meteoritic nickel-iron alloys linked the site to fragments classified under Canyon Diablo meteorite types and to collectors and curators at the Field Museum of Natural History and the Natural History Museum, London. Radiometric dating efforts, isotope geochemistry from laboratories at Carnegie Institution for Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and cosmochemical comparisons with samples from Antarctic meteorites constrained formation age estimates. The crater became a pedagogical locus in courses at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkeley on impact processes and planetary stratigraphy, and its diagnostics informed recognition of impact structures on Earth and other bodies.

Human History and Ownership

The crater lies on land historically used and traversed by Indigenous peoples including the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and Apache peoples, and later encountered by European-American explorers and prospectors in the 19th century. Prospecting claims and legal disputes involved individuals like Daniel Moreau Barringer whose company pursued mining rights and meteorite recovery, and later stewardship passed through private ownership entwined with entities such as the Barringer Crater Company and conservation organizations. The site's management intersects with federal and state agencies including the National Park Service (through comparative research), Arizona State Parks, and county authorities, while academic partnerships have included University of Arizona and Arizona State University for research permits and outreach.

Tourism and Visitor Facilities

As a tourist attraction the site developed visitor facilities including a Discovery Center and observation overlooks, drawing tourists from Flagstaff, Arizona, Sedona, Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, and international visitors arriving via Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Flagstaff Pulliam Airport. Educational programming partners include the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibits, university-led field trips from Arizona State University, and outreach to schools associated with the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe. Nearby accommodation and services tie into regional tourism networks such as Route 66 heritage itineraries, Grand Canyon tourism, and cultural tourism centered on Native American communities. The crater’s use in training for astronauts linked it to the NASA astronaut corps, Johnson Space Center, and analog fieldwork for lunar geology.

Conservation and Environmental Impact

Conservation concerns include preservation of diagnostic shock features, mitigation of visitor erosion on fragile desert soils, and protection of cultural resources associated with Indigenous groups. Environmental reviews and management plans have referenced frameworks used by the National Environmental Policy Act in federal studies, coordination with tribal governments, and consultation processes similar to those employed by the National Park Service and state land agencies. Scientific monitoring engages institutions like the US Geological Survey, Arizona Geological Survey, and university research stations to study ongoing geomorphic evolution, groundwater interactions in the Coconino aquifer region, and the impacts of regional development linked to transportation corridors such as Interstate 40.

Category:Impact craters Category:Landforms of Arizona