The Barringer Meteorite Crater

We enjoyed visiting this area in Arizona in 2001. The crater was named after Daniel Moreau Barringer, a mining engineer who was one of the first people to claim that this crater was the result of an impact and not of a volcanic activity. The meteorite that struck this area weighed 300,000 tons and traveled at a speed of 26,000 miles per hour (12 kilometers per second). Most of it was melted by the force of the impact. The impact occurred during the last ice age. This area was much cooler and wetter and covered with forests back then .