The Canyon Diablo

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object ...

refers to the many fragments of the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

that created

Meteor Crater Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is a meteorite impact crater about east of Flagstaff and west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are offi ...

(also called Barringer Crater),

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, United States. Meteorites have been found around the crater rim, and are named for nearby Canyon Diablo, which lies about three to four miles west of the crater.

History

The impactor fell about 50,000 years ago. Initially known and used by pre-historic Native Americans, Canyon Diablo meteorites have been collected and studied by the scientific community since the 19th century. Meteor Crater, from the late 19th to the early 20th century, was the center of a long dispute over the origin of craters that showed little evidence of volcanism. That debate was largely settled by the early 1930s, thanks to work by Daniel M. Barringer, F.R. Moulton, Harvey Harlow Nininger, and

Eugene Shoemaker Eugene Merle Shoemaker (April 28, 1928 – July 18, 1997) was an American geologist. He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn S. Shoemaker and David H. Levy. This comet hit Jupiter in July 1994: the impact was televise ...

. In 1953,

Clair Cameron Patterson Clair Cameron Patterson (June 2, 1922 – December 5, 1995) was an American geochemist. Born in Mitchellville, Iowa, Patterson graduated from Grinnell College. He later received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and spent his entire profe ...

measured ratios of the lead isotopes in samples of the meteorite. Through U-Pb radiometric dating, a refined estimate of the

age of the Earth The age of Earth is estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years This age may represent the age of Earth's accretion, or core formation, or of the material from which Earth formed. This dating is based on evidence from radiometric age-dating of ...

was obtained: 4.550 billion years (± 70 million years).

Composition and classification

This meteorite is an iron octahedrite (coarse octahedrite). Minerals reported from the meteorite include: *

Cohenite Cohenite is a naturally occurring iron carbide mineral with the chemical structure ( Fe, Ni, Co)3 C. This forms a hard, shiny, silver mineral which was named by E. Weinschenk in 1889 after the German mineralogist Emil Cohen, who first described ...

– iron carbide *

Chromite Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of FeCr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The element magnesium can ...

– iron magnesium chromium oxide *

Daubréelite Daubréelite is a rare sulfide mineral. It crystallizes with cubic symmetry and has chemical composition of Fe2+Cr3+2S4. It usually occurs as black platy aggregates. Naming and history Daubréelite was named after the French mineralogist, petr ...

– iron(II) chromium sulfide *

Diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

and lonsdaleite – carbon *

Graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on la ...

– carbon *

Haxonite Haxonite is an iron nickel carbide mineral found in iron meteorites and carbonaceous chondrites. It has a chemical formula of , crystallises in the cubic crystal system and has a Mohs hardness of - 6. It was first described in 1971, and named a ...

– iron nickel carbide * Kamacite iron nickel alloy – the most common component. *

Base metal A base metal is a common and inexpensive metal, as opposed to a precious metal such as gold or silver. In numismatics, coins often derived their value from the precious metal content; however, base metals have also been used in coins in the past ...

sulfide Sulfide (British English also sulphide) is an inorganic anion of sulfur with the chemical formula S2− or a compound containing one or more S2− ions. Solutions of sulfide salts are corrosive. ''Sulfide'' also refers to chemical compounds la ...

s *

Schreibersite Schreibersite is generally a rare iron nickel phosphide mineral, , though common in iron-nickel meteorites. It has been found on Disko Island in Greenland and Illinois. Another name used for the mineral is rhabdite. It forms tetragonal cr ...

– iron nickel phosphide *

Taenite Taenite is a mineral found naturally on Earth mostly in iron meteorites. It is an alloy of iron and nickel, with a chemical formula of and nickel proportions of 20% up to 65%. The name is derived from the Greek ταινία for "band, ribbon" ...

– iron nickel alloy *

Troilite Troilite is a rare iron sulfide mineral with the simple formula of FeS. It is the iron-rich endmember of the pyrrhotite group. Pyrrhotite has the formula Fe(1-x)S (x = 0 to 0.2) which is iron deficient. As troilite lacks the iron deficiency whic ...

– a variety of the iron sulfide mineral pyrrhotite. The troilite in this sample is used as the standard reference for sulfur isotope ratios. *

Moissanite Moissanite () is naturally occurring silicon carbide and its various crystalline polymorphs. It has the chemical formula SiC and is a rare mineral, discovered by the French chemist Henri Moissan in 1893. Silicon carbide is useful for commercial ...

– a variety of silicon carbide, the second hardest natural mineral. Samples may contain troilite-graphite nodules with metal veins and small diamonds.

Fragments

Meteorite fragment from the Cañon Diablo Meteorite

The biggest fragment ever found is the Holsinger Meteorite, weighing , now on display in the Meteor Crater Visitor Center on the rim of the crater. Other famous fragments: * ,

Canterbury Museum, Christchurch The Canterbury Museum is a museum located in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand, in the city's Cultural Precinct. The museum was established in 1867 with Julius von Haast – whose collection formed its core – as its first directo ...

, New Zealand. The largest fragment outside the United States. * ,

Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

, Paris, France. * ,

Lowell Observatory Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Lowell Observatory was established in 1894, placing it among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landma ...

in Flagstaff, Arizona.
226,8 kilograms (500 lb), MINES ParisTech Mineralogy Museum
Paris School of Mines, France. * ,

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natura ...

, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. * 194 kilograms (427 lb),

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and ...

, Beloit, Wisconsin. * 179 kilograms (395 lb), Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California. * , Van Vleck Observatory,

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

, Middletown, Connecticut. * , "Clark Iron," Meteorite Gallery,

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

. * 145 kilograms (320 lb), Geology Museum,

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

, Madison, Wisconsin. * ,

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

, Philadelphia. * , Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California. Fragment loaned by the Geology Department of Pomona College. * ,

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

, San Francisco. * 82 kilograms (181 lb), Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. * ,

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, A ...

, Newark, New Jersey. * 46 kilograms (101 lb), Branner Library,

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, Stanford, California. * 28 kilograms (57 lb),

Peoria Riverfront Museum The Peoria Riverfront Museum is a private museum of art, science, history, and achievement located on the riverfront in downtown Peoria, Illinois in a building owned by the County of Peoria. The Museum has five major galleries and a dozen smaller d ...

, Dome Planetarium, Peoria, Illinois. * , Basket Meteorite, Meteor Crater Museum, Arizona.Long-lost meteorite comes home to Arizona
/ref> * 19 kilograms (42 lb), Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia.

References

External links

Mindat.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canyon Diablo (Meteorite) Meteorites found in the United States Geology of Arizona no:Canyon Diablo

History

Composition and classification

Fragments

See also

References

External links