Meteors

(Blurry) Photo of Meteor Crater in Arizona

 

I came across this interesting list last week:  Meteorite Impact Craters in the United States 

Many of these impact craters are now filled in, covered up, or otherwise unable to detect without having done some kind of geologic surveying.  A glaring exception is the Barringer Crater (aka, Meteor Crater) in northern Arizona (shown above, in a photo from a point and shoot camera I bought in 2006).  I went there on a whim back in 2008 when I was in the Flagstaff area.  The crater was much more fun to visit than I anticipated (though not on the level of the Grand Canyon, which I also visited on that trip).   

The crater I have "visited" more recently is the Sierra Madera Astrobleme.  I used the quotes there because said visit involved driving to Big Bend National Park on US Route 385 (which runs through the 8 mile diameter crater).   The cool parts are visible from the highway, but on a private ranch.   Thus, it's a cool road trip anomaly to encounter on the way to Big Bend (a place I'll write more about in a future post).  

Do you like the idea of owning rocks which have traveled through space?  Earlier this evening I read that starting on Tuesday Christie's will be auctioning off 72 meteorites.  Thus if have some spare cash lying around, you can potentially get your hands on a meteorite without having to wait for one to fall on your property.   And if you do buy one, consider letting a museum display your new meteorite (at least from time to time) so that the general public can enjoy getting to see it.