What is the Barringer Crater?
Barringer Crater, otherwise known as Meteor Crater, is one of the best-preserved and largest impact craters on the planet. Located 43 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona, the Barringer Crater is about 1,200 m (4,000 ft) in diameter, 170 m (540 ft) deep, and has a rim that rises 45 m (150 ft) from the surrounding desert terrain. Within the crater is about 240 m (800 ft) of rubble that covers the crater floor. Probably one of the most famous and well-visited craters in the world, the Barringer Crater was made about 50,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene. At the time, the terrain was much wetter and cooler than today, and would have been a grassland occupied by camels, woolly mammoths, and giant ground sloths. A nickel-iron meteorite about 50 meters (164 ft) across impacted the ground at 12.8 kilometers per second (28,600 mph). When it entered the atmosphere, the bolide is estimated to have had a mass of 300,000 tonnes, half of which was lost due to friction by the time it reached the surf
Teachers, before completing this Science Lesson Plan, be sure that students understand what small solar bodies are by using the introductory lesson plan, Small Solar Bodies Lesson Plan in this series. This will ensure that students understand the concept of small solar system bodies as well as the brief information that lesson plan provides about meteors. Then, continue on the rest of this lesson plan. • Direct students to this web page explaining what the Barringer Crater is. • Ask students to review the material provided in the web page that explains what the Barringer Meteorite Crater is and how it was determined that the crater was caused by a meteorite. • Discuss with students the various aspects of the meteorite that created the Barringer Meteorite Crater. • During the discussion, ask students to display their knowledge of the material by telling you what metals and various other materials were found in the Barringer Crater that tell us what the Meteorite was made of. • Explain t
