Meteorite Canyon Diablo – Arizona, USA
Type: iron / octahedrite IAB - MG
Locality: Arizona, USA
Weight: 10,5g
Dimensions: 2,3 x 2,2 x 1,3 cm
Year found: 1891
Total known weight: 30 tonnes
Surface treatment: none – raw
Packaging: Transparent plastic box (8,4 x 5,8 x 2,4 cm)
| Category: | Canyon Diablo |
|---|---|
| By name: | Canyon Diablo |
| ? Type: | Iron |
| ? Surface treatment: | Natural (raw) |
| Packaging: | In box |
Free gift
For order over 20 $
Shipping within 2 working days
Canyon Diablo Meteorite – Creator of the Barringer Crater
The Canyon Diablo meteorite impacted Earth around 50,000 years ago and formed the Barringer Crater, also known as the Meteor Crater, measuring approximately 1.6 km in diameter and 170 meters deep. This crater is located in Arizona, USA, and is one of the best-preserved meteorite impact craters on Earth. The meteorite was named after nearby Canyon Diablo, about 5 km west of the crater.
The meteorite was discovered in 1891 and has attracted scientific interest ever since due to its composition and the number of fragments found. Its pieces contain rare minerals, including diamonds formed under extreme pressure during the impact.
Classification and Composition
Canyon Diablo is an IAB-MG type iron meteorite, composed mainly of kamacite (an iron-nickel alloy, ~90%). It also contains 1–4% taenite, another iron-nickel alloy, and crystals of schreibersite and troilite. Cohenite, a hard iron carbide, is also often present.
Samples exposed to intense impact show signs of partial melting, recrystallization, Neumann banding, and other deformation. One of the most significant effects is the transformation of graphite into diamond and lonsdaleite, appearing as dark material visible when cut. Diamond blades deflect when encountering these zones.
Fragments
Upon impact, the Canyon Diablo meteorite broke into thousands of fragments. The largest known piece is the Holsinger Meteorite, weighing 639 kg, now displayed at the Meteor Crater museum. Fragments larger than 10 kg are rare, and those over 100 kg are extremely scarce. The total estimated weight of found fragments is over 30 tons. On many meteorite pieces, especially near the crater's edge, the Widmanstätten pattern was destroyed by the explosion during impact.
Mining History
Daniel M. Barringer, a mining engineer and entrepreneur, proposed in 1903 that the crater was created by a large iron meteorite and acquired a mining permit for 640 acres surrounding the crater. He estimated the meteorite's weight to be 100 million tons and envisioned mining the buried metal.
At the time, about 30 tons of oxidized meteorite fragments lay scattered around the area. This led Barringer to believe that the main body of the impactor was still buried below. He spent 27 years searching and drilled down to 419 meters but found no significant deposit.
Discovery in 1929
In 1929, astronomer F. R. Moulton, working for the Barringer Crater Company, concluded that the impactor weighed only 300,000 tons and that the heat of the impact was sufficient to vaporize it instantly. Barringer died ten days after Moulton’s second report was published.
1963 Research
Scientists compared the crater to those produced by nuclear tests and estimated that 1.7 megatons of energy were required to create it. This would correspond to an object weighing 63,000 tons traveling at 14.5 km/s.
An estimated 30 tons of fragments have been collected. Fine material around the crater contains an estimated 8,000 tons of iron, leaving around 55,000 tons to speculate on. Most vaporized, while some remains as samples near the crater. Spherical iron droplets were found northeast of the crater. Until recently, meteorite hunters with metal detectors continued to find new specimens.