Qualla: Meteor Crater https://qualla.com/meteor-crater en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Meteor Crater https://qualla.com/meteor-crater Meteor Crater: Introduction https://qualla.com/meteor-crater/ Meteor Crater is nearly a mile across, 550 feet deep, and almost perfectly circular - a textbook example of what happens when a cosmic visitor arrives at 26,000 miles per hour. Fifty thousand years ago, a 150-foot nickel-iron meteorite struck the Arizona desert with the force of 10 million tons of TNT. The impact vaporized the meteorite and excavated 300 million tons of rock in seconds. For decades, scientists debated whether the crater was volcanic; mining engineer Daniel Barringer was certain a meteorite was responsible - and spent 27 years and $600,000 drilling for a metallic mass that had already vaporized on impact. The crater that bears his name proved him right about the impact, wrong about the buried treasure. NASA trained Apollo astronauts here; the crater remains the best-preserved impact site on Earth and a reminder that the cosmos occasionally delivers special delivery packages.

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/1/q/meteor-crater-wk/9w1q-meteor-crater-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Meteor Crater: The Impact https://qualla.com/meteor-crater/ The Canyon Diablo meteorite (named for a nearby canyon) was traveling at approximately 26,000 miles per hour when it hit. The energy released - equivalent to about 10 megatons of TNT - vaporized the meteorite and melted the underlying rock. The explosion excavated a crater 4,000 ...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/1/q/meteor-crater-wk/9w1q-meteor-crater-the-impact.mp3 0:06 2 full Meteor Crater: The Discovery https://qualla.com/meteor-crater/ European Americans discovered the crater in 1871, but its origin was debated for decades. Grove Karl Gilbert, the leading geologist of his era, visited in 1891 and concluded it was volcanic - he couldn't find the meteorite mass he expected. Daniel Barringer, a Philadelphia mining...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/1/q/meteor-crater-wk/9w1q-meteor-crater-the-discovery.mp3 0:06 3 full Meteor Crater: The Proof https://qualla.com/meteor-crater/ Eugene Shoemaker proved the crater's impact origin in the 1960s. He found coesite and stishovite - minerals formed only under extreme pressures far exceeding anything volcanic - in the crater rocks. This was the smoking gun: proof that the crater was created by hypervelocity impa...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/1/q/meteor-crater-wk/9w1q-meteor-crater-the-proof.mp3 0:06 4 full Meteor Crater: The Training https://qualla.com/meteor-crater/ NASA recognized Meteor Crater's value for astronaut training. In the 1960s, before the Moon landings, astronauts practiced at the crater, learning to recognize impact features they would see on the lunar surface. The crater provided the best Earth analog for lunar terrain. Apollo...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/1/q/meteor-crater-wk/9w1q-meteor-crater-the-training.mp3 0:06 5 full Meteor Crater: Visiting Meteor Crater https://qualla.com/meteor-crater/ Meteor Crater is located off Interstate 40 about 40 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona. The site is privately owned (still by the Barringer family) and charges admission. A museum interprets the science of impacts and the crater's history. An observation deck on the rim offers view...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/1/q/meteor-crater-wk/9w1q-meteor-crater-visiting-meteor-crater.mp3 0:06 6 full