Meteor Crater
A businessman spent 27 years drilling for a giant iron meteorite in an Arizona crater, and was right about everything except the meteorite.
What was reported
Meteor Crater, in the Arizona desert, is about 1.2 km across and 170 metres deep, with a raised rim. In the 1890s the leading geologist G. K. Gilbert concluded it had been made by a volcanic steam explosion.
From 1903 the mining engineer Daniel Barringer argued it was made by a meteorite, and he spent 27 years and much of his fortune drilling for the huge mass of iron he believed lay buried beneath it, hoping to mine it.
Explanations offered
Barringer was right that it was an impact, the first crater on Earth proven to be one, and it helped scientists understand craters on the Moon. But the meteorite, about 50 metres across, mostly vaporised or shattered when it struck around 50,000 years ago, so there was no great mass to find. The crater is still owned by his family's company.
- When
- Formed about 50,000 years ago
- Where
- Near Winslow, Arizona, USA
- Witnesses
- Daniel Barringer, a mining engineer
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.