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Copyright ©
2008 David Schaubert, All Rights Reserved
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Science tells us that the basic organic chemical building blocks of life arrived on Earth through the constant bombardment by comets and asteroids. As such, impact craters represent the BEGINNINGS of life on Earth.
The Barringer Meteor Crater (a.k.a. Franklin Hole, Coon Butte, Canyon Diablo Crater) is the best-preserved example of an impact crater on the Earth. This panorama is taken from the south rim 550 ft (167 m) above the crater floor. To the East, the snow-covered San Francisco Peaks (12,633 ft/3,851 m) near Flagstaff can be seen.
The crater is the result of the arrival 50,000 years ago of a 150 ft (46 m) wide iron-nickel meteor traveling at 26,000 mph (41,843 km/h) that on impact released energy the equivalent of 20 million tons of TNT. The resulting crater was 700 ft (213 m) deep and over 4100 ft (1.2 km) across and dislodged 175 million tons of rock. Since then erosion has only slightly reduced its rim which stands 120-200 feet above the surrounding rocky plain.
Interestingly, an impact of this size is forecast to occur every 50,000 years, so I guess we are due any time now..........
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