Today we saw a different type of crater than yesterday’s Sunset Crater. The Meteor Crater is not volcanic, though that wasn’t proven until 1960. Meteor Crater science is relatively young. With the snow-covered San Francisco Peaks still visible in the west, people thought logically that this crater must also be part of a volcanic field.

One treasure-hunting miner begged to differ. Daniel Barringer thought this was a meteorite impact site and that the obviously large meteorite might still be there, buried underground, full of iron that would make his fortune. He formed the Standard Iron Company and set about spending the next 26 years fruitlessly searching for this chunk of iron ore. We now know the meteorite was vaporized on impact, and the largest chunk ever found broke off before impact to survive and hit a few miles away in Canyon Diablo.

In 1960, geologist Eugene Shoemaker found the shocked quartz and rock layers being overturned that provided the needed evidence that this was a space event, not a volcano. He brought the Apollo astronauts here to practice the identification and collection skills they would need to use on their moonwalks. After all, they were test pilots, not scientists.

One cool story shared by our tour guide was when a two-seater Cessna plane flew too close over the crater and crash landed. On sunny days, there is a warm column of air rising out of the crater. This suddenly less dense air is dangerous for small aircraft. The pilot and co-pilot were rescued, and two pieces of the plane can still be seen. The fuselage was put down in one of the mining shafts to remove it from sight as crashed plane emergency reports were coming in too often from concerned pilots that flew nearby.

This was a really fun place to stop. The families involved in owning and operating the museum and tours have really put in the effort to make this a worthy stop. It is not a tourist trap, but rather is a science museum with a tour of a unique-in-the-world landmark. Most meteor craters around the world get filled in and are not visible like this one in its desert environment. This dry climate will preserve this crater for hundreds of thousands of years more, but it is subject to erosion which will fill it in eventually. At formation, it was approximately 150-feet deeper than it is now.