Meteor Crater



A meteor only 140 ft across blasted a hole as deep as a 60-story building is high and 3/4's of a mile wide.  The meteor was something like 93% iron - wicked heavy! - and almost completely disintegrated as it tore through the atmosphere and then struck the earth at 26,000 mph.  The impact threw 175 million tons of limestone and sandstone over a mile away.  Pretty cool.

Meteor Crater was not on our to-do/to-see list the day we saw it, but signs on the road lured us toward this as a must-see roadside attraction.  It was a bit expensive ($25/person), and yet it was indeed cool to see and learn about the largest and best-preserved impact crater on earth and to know that the entrance fees collected support continued research.

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