INTRODUCTION: Barringer Crater also known as Meteor Crater is one of the famous terrestrial impact craters which formed when a large meteoroid crashes into the Earth during the last ice age. It was located in the rolling plain of the Canyon Diablo region, 19 miles west of Winslow, Arizona, U.S. It has been named after Daniel Barringer, the first person to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact. Barringer Carter is considered as the largest impact crater yet discovered in the United States, and one of the best preserved on earth.
BARRINGER CRATER FORMATION: About 50,000 years ago, a huge rock fragment composed of nickel and iron, broke away from the asteroid belt in the space and rushed towards the earth. The meteorite estimated…show more content… At the point when the dust settled, crater was remained over a kilometre across and 750 feet deep. The area was open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by woolly mammoths and giant ground sloths. The power of the impact levelled the forest for miles around, hurling the mammoths across the plain and killing or severely injuring any animals unfortunate enough to be nearby. As the landscape recovered, a lake formed in the bottom of the crater, and sediments accumulated until the bowl was only 550 feet deep. When the ice age ended, the climate changed and dried. The desert that we see today helped to preserve the crater from further erosion…show more content… He later visited the crater and was convinced that it had been formed by the impact of a large iron meteorite. He further assumed that this body was buried beneath the crater floor. Barringer was correct about that the crater was formed by a meteorite impact, but what he did not know was that the meteorite underwent total disintegration during impact through vaporization. In 1903, he formed the Standard Iron Company and obtained the patent and ownership of the two square miles containing the crater. Barringer believed that iron-nickel core over 10 million tons lay beneath the crater and raised $200,000 from an investor promising a profit of $250 million on a mere half million dollar investment. But when he drilled the mine he found nothing but water. He spent 26 years attempting to find what he believed would be the giant iron meteorite and invested all his money in it. Barringer never found what he was looking for, but he proved that the crater was the site of a meteorite impact