Devil Canyon. Arizona Crater, Devil's Canyon (anomalous zone). Meteorite from Barringer Crater, Arizona

Approximately 30,000-50,000 years ago, a giant boulder fell to Earth near the Devil's Canyon in Arizona, and a bowl-shaped funnel 1250 m in diameter and 174 m deep was formed on the surface of the planet. Barringer Crater, which is also known as Arizona Crater, Un Goro Crater, Devil's Canyon, is a meteorite crater (astrobleme) located approximately 43 miles (69 kilometers) east of the city of Flagstaff, 30 kilometers west of the city of Winslow in wilderness of northern Arizona in the USA. Because the US Board of Geographic Names usually names natural features according to the name of the nearest post office, the crater is also known as "Meteor Crater" due to the nearest post office, which is called Meteor.

This place was previously known as Devil's Canyon Crater, and the meteorite fragments that are located at the bottom of the crater were officially named "Devil's Canyon meteorite". Scientists call the crater Barringer Crater in honor of Philadelphia mining engineer Daniel Moreau Barringer, who discovered the site. It was he who first put forward the hypothesis that a giant funnel appeared as a result of a meteorite hitting the ground.

meteorite from crater barringer, Arizona.

To form such a huge crater, the meteorite flew through the atmosphere at a speed of 69,000 km/h or so. The force of its impact on the Earth was equal to the force of an explosion of 500,000 tons of explosive (almost 40 times more powerful than the explosion of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima). 100 million tons of rocks crushed into dust were thrown into the atmosphere. The sediments were formed, which now make up the slopes of the crater. Drops of molten metal from the meteorite scattered over an area of ​​260 km2. The fragments were no larger than pebbles, although some reached 630 kg. The rocks ejected from the crater were a mixture of sandstone and limestone - the remains of fossil-rich rocks from the bottom of a prehistoric lake that once existed in this region. A thick lens-shaped layer of the same rocks, called a breccia, now covers the crater floor. In the 1930s, funds were allocated to drill through the breccia to the bottom of the crater. At a depth of up to 260 m, traces of nickel and iron appeared, below this level the rocks remained intact. It can be assumed that the remains of the meteorite lie under the southern edge of the crater, but make up no more than 10% of the main rocks. The main mass of the meteorite was dispersed during the collision, turning into iron-nickel fragments. In 1960, traces of two rare forms of silica, coesite and stishovite, were found in the crater bowl, which are also obtained artificially under conditions of high pressures and temperatures. (Although stishovite can form under high pressure deep within the Earth's crust, it reverts back to quartz when it rises to the surface.) The presence of these minerals in natural form in the crater area is indisputable evidence of a powerful impact. All doubts about the nature of the origin of the crater were dispelled, and Barringer's assumptions about the meteorite nature of the crater, which now bears his name, were fully confirmed. Although the crater is a geological landmark, it is not protected as a national monument. This status requires that the object be in federal ownership. Barringer Crater was designated a National Natural Landmark in November 1967.

Daniel Barringer The Barringer Meteor Crater is located at an altitude of about 1740 meters (5709 feet) above sea level. It is a gigantic earthen bowl about 1,200 meters (4,000 ft) in diameter, about 170 meters (570 ft), deep, surrounded by a rim that rises 45 meters (150 ft) above the surrounding plains. In the center, the crater is filled with a layer of rubble and fragments of nickel-iron with a total thickness of 210-240 meters (700-800 feet), which lies at the bottom of a giant earthen bowl. One of the interesting features of the crater is its square outline.

The crater was formed about 50 thousand years ago during the Pleistocene era, when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and wetter. At that time, the area was meadows and pastures where mammoths roamed. Most likely, there were no human settlements in this area; the first official evidence of the appearance of a person on the territory of both Americas dates back to a much later period. The first people appeared near the crater about 25 thousand years ago. The Indians, whose tribes inhabited this area, told a legend that many years ago, the fiery god descended to earth on his chariot, after which a crater formed. Therefore, the Indians used fragments of a meteorite as an amulet and placed them in the graves of their dead relatives.

The object whose fall and impact with the ground caused the crater to appear was a nickel meteorite about 50 meters (54 yards) across. The meteorite crashed into the plain at a speed of several kilometers per second. The impact energy is estimated at 10 megatons. The speed of the collision itself has been the subject of some debate. As a result of the simulations, scientists initially assumed that the meteorite hit the ground at speeds up to 20 kilometers per second (45,000 mph), but recent studies show that the speed was significantly lower, at approximately 12.8 kilometers per second (28,600 mph). h). It is believed that about half of the meteorite's weight, which was 300,000 metric tons, evaporated in the atmosphere and on impact with the Earth. That is why the search for a meteorite undertaken by the discoverer of the crater, Daniel Barringer, was unsuccessful.

Today, Barringer Meteor Crater is a popular tourist attraction, privately owned by the third generation of the Barringer family. Anyone wishing to view the crater must pay a small fee. Literally on the edge of the crater there is a museum with interactive exhibits and expositions about meteorites and asteroids, space, the solar system and comets. In addition, photographs of all American astronauts in full space attire are stored here - a kind of "wall of glory". Here you can also see a 1406 pound meteorite found nearby, as well as fragments of a meteorite from the Barringer Crater itself, which you can even touch. In addition, there is a cinema, a souvenir shop, as well as an observation deck from which you can admire the crater. Guided tours of Barringer Crater run daily.

This is one of the most beautiful and unusual places in Ukraine where I have been. Aktovsky canyon is often called the "Valley of the Devil". Between the high rocks meanders a small river Mertvod. According to legend, the ancient Scythians sent their kings along its course on their last journey. The rocks around rise to 50 meters. How and why such a place arose among the flat steppe is completely incomprehensible. This is the American Grand Canyon in miniature. The landscapes here are incredibly beautiful, especially at dawn - with the first rays of the sun, the rocks become peach-pink. Welcome to Devil's Valley.

Autumn should be met where it is especially beautiful. Last year, such a place was for us, now it is Aktovsky Canyon. We had been planning to go there for a long time and finally broke out, and even with tents, so we managed to shoot at dawn. Getting here is very difficult, but worth it. This is one of the most beautiful and unusual places in Ukraine where I have been. At the end of the post there is a map and a detailed description of the best way to get there. For now, enjoy the beauty.

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To begin with, by tradition, the history of the place in two paragraphs. This is one of the oldest landmasses in Eurasia, formed from volcanic rocks. The sea here dried up 60 million years ago. But that was too long ago, we are more interested in the present. Aktovsky Canyon is located in the valley of the Mertvod River. This is a tributary. The length of the entire canyon is about five kilometers. The height of the rocks is up to 50 meters. In some places sheer stone walls are formed. Huge boulders lie on the shores.

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Like Aktovsky Canyon and the entire course of the Mertvod River, it is included in the Bugsky Guard National Park. This place is called "Valley of the Devil" and "Small Crimea" - granite-basalt rocks are very similar to the Crimean ones.

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Rocks in the village of Aktovo. This is the most popular section of the canyon. But, by the way, not the most beautiful. More will be better)

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For the first time I saw how tourist buses drive through an open field. It's beautiful here, but there are a lot of people. Therefore, we go further.

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The place is very popular, but it is incredibly quiet and cozy here. Tourists rarely reach the canyon itself, limiting themselves only to rocks in the Aktovo village itself. It is difficult to drive further, only photographers, climbers and ecotourism lovers wander into the valley itself. So we are on our way there.

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Dawn. The sun rises due to landing opposite the canyon, so the rocks are pink in the morning.

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Many rituals of the ancient tribes were held in these places. Most of the Scythian kings are buried in the valley. According to legend, the rulers were sent on their last journey along the Dead Water. Hence the gloomy name. Herodotus calls this river Exampey, which literally means "dead water".

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There is another legend - during one of the Tatar raids, local residents cooked a poisonous broth and poured it into the river upstream from the Tatar camp. The enemies drank some water and died. According to another version, the river got its name after a terrible battle between the Zaporizhian Cossacks and the Turks, after which the river water was not visible because of the bodies of the dead.

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As for me, it is from this point that the best view of the canyon and the valley of the Mertvod River opens.

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The canyon is considered the only one in Europe, which, according to geological and landscape indicators, exactly repeats the famous canyons of North America. A kind of Grand Canyon in miniature.

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The sun has risen and the rocks no longer seem peach.

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It is hard to believe, but a hundred years ago the river was navigable. The Soviet government decided to equip collective farms here - the channel was blocked in many places with dams, the banks were turned into fields. The course of the river slowed down, the bottom silted up, the channel was overgrown with reeds. They say that in some places the layer of silt and mud reaches five meters, in some places the river has turned into a swamp that can be forded. But in some places, small murmuring cascades and even waterfalls are still preserved.

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The best place to set up camp. Convenient descent to the water, there is a place for a fire and tents. And all around is beauty.

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Locals come here to fish.

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local flora. They say that several hundred species of different plants grow here. Many of them are listed in the Red Book. I don't know what it is, but it looks nice.

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Finally - two panoramas. Pictures are clickable.
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How to get to Aktovsky canyon:
The road is not for the faint of heart. From Odessa it is best to go through Nikolaev, and further along the Southern Bug, through New Odessa and Voznesensk. At the exit from Voznesensk, in front of the church, turn right. The road to the village of Trikraty is quite tolerable. In the village itself there is a wonderful landmark - the old road, paved with paving stones, you go there. In about 10 minutes Arbuzinsky Canyon will appear on the right. We pass by, we enter the village. The main road turns left and after about five minutes it ends in a field. Right behind it are the most popular rocks. The canyon itself is upstream. You need to go there through the fields and dirt road. You leave the village, near the tractor base to the right, then along the field until landing - there will be a small passage through it. Further the road goes between the canyon and the forest. It's easier to show on a map than to explain. The only correct path from the village to the canyon is highlighted in orange. Yes, they are all primers. Drive 20-30 minutes.

1 - the most popular rocks (photo 2-7), 2 - an improvised parking lot, 3 - a tractor base, you need to turn right near it, 4 - a lake, 5 - here we dive through the landing, 6 - the steepest view of the canyon (photo 15- 23), 7 - another cool place with a convenient descent to the water (photo 27-33), 8 - a small waterfall (photo 24-26).

P.S. Firewood for a fire can be found on the spot, but for them you need to go to the landing, on the shore everything was dismantled a long time ago. So if you are too lazy to walk a lot, bring coal with you) It is also advisable to take a folding brazier with you. There are few equipped places for fires, and the grass all around is dry - it can catch fire.

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Photo reports from other canyons and quarries in the south of Ukraine.

Jackson Cole

Devil Canyon

Captain, death has settled in these mountains. Death and horror!

What do you mean by that, Manuel?

The old Mexican, looking around uneasily, spoke more quietly.

What the Captain said: death is there, it comes from there

Ranger Jim Hatfield looked from the weather-beaten face of old Manuel, nicknamed Peon, to where, in the far northwest, the mountains of Tinaja rose like a dark wall on the horizon. This wall, broken and studded, like fangs, with pointed peaks, was dark blue and violet in color, on its body, here and there, dried-up stream beds reddened with bleeding wounds or the canyons gaped with blackness.

Hatwild stopped his mighty bay on the outskirts of the town by the river. Between the mountains and the town, magnificent pastures stretched for many miles like a wavy emerald blanket. True, in some places, suddenly, alien patches came across patches of barren desert, so characteristic of southwestern Texas, bald patches where a gnarled saxaul and a bizarre cactus waged an exhausting struggle for existence. But in general, this smiling land was wrapped in a rich green dress, trimmed along the edges with the silver of streams.

Hatwild turned back to the Mexican, whose face was an amusing mixture of canine devotion and awe.

Still, what do you mean by that, amigo? he repeated his question.

Old Manuel glanced around nervously again. No one could hear him, but he spoke even more quietly, almost in a whisper.

Before, Captain, our guys went there, - he said, - went to hunt game, dig roots of grasses that grow only in these mountains. So it was for many years in a row ... The youth went to the mountains and returned with full bags and loaded donkeys. And then suddenly everything changed. Once the guys went to the mountains - and did not return. Others went looking for them and also disappeared. Still others - with weapons and ready for anything - went to the mountains and returned with nothing, they did not find anything. Our people didn't go there anymore. And then...then, Captain, the midnight riders came and - He!

Yes captain. He came, and with him the horsemen. They began to take people away from the coastal villages by force. They promised to give a job and pay well, but the price was death!

Hatfield's gray eyes narrowed. He had heard what Mexican landowners and mine owners did when there were not enough workers.

They raid the villages of peons - peaceful Mexican peasants - and take away these simple-hearted hard workers, without asking whether they want it or not.

Well, maybe they have it there, on the other side of the Rio Grande, but here, on this side of the border, such a number will not work. Although these people are Mexicans by blood, they are citizens of the state of Texas, and as such, they can count on the protection of the state.

Hatfield began to patiently sort things out.

Still, Manuel, who is this "He"? Is he a big landowner? Does he have a big ranch?

The old Mexican hesitated painfully. Beads of sweat ran down his wrinkled cheeks. Finally, he whispered, barely audible:

This is El Ombre Sin Cara...

"The Man Without a Face," Hatfield translated, wondering what real meaning could be attached to this Spanish expression. He knew this flourishing land and its people too well to take such phrases literally.

Are you saying that his face is not visible, or that he has scars on his face?

Manuel nodded slowly.

Si, - he said, - el sicatris, scar, yes, he is without a face.

Hatfield had to be content with that.

And the people who are with him? - he asked.

Manuel just hissed in anger.

They are devils!

Well, yes, of course, I understand, they are devils - for you - the ranger agreed. “And none of those people ever came back?”

Manuel's eyes darted nervously. He licked his parched lips. A whole gamut of contradictory experiences was reflected on his wrinkled face. He suffered. Finally he broke through - he spoke quickly and passionately.

No, Captain! Some are back - to die!

Hatfield was about to ask again, but the Mexican beat him to it.

Wait, Captain, wait! And now there is still one of those who returned. Would you like to see him, Captain?

Certainly! I would like to hear what he has to say.

You won't hear anything. Captain, said Manuel. - But to see - you'll see. Let's go!

Hatfield's bay horse plodded along behind the Mexican, who was heading for some miserable shack a few hundred yards away. He knocked on the door, muttered something in Spanish, and gestured for the ranger to dismount.

Trusting his bay to the evening breeze, Hatfield followed the Mexican into the room.

It was dark inside. He had to bend down to avoid touching the low lintel with the top of his wide-brimmed hat.

Hetfield hesitated for a minute, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. At first he could not distinguish anything, only some shadows. Then one of these shadows turned out to be an ancient old woman - more Indian than Mexican. There was a bed in the far corner of the room, something was lying on it, moving slightly and making sounds like mumbling. Hatfield stepped closer.

Here, - said Manuel, - one of those who returned from there.

Jim Hatfield leaned over the bed, trying to see the man on it.

What he saw was once a man. Now it was something, but not a person, rather a thing. This something writhed slowly and continuously, like a snake in hibernation. Yes, most of all this terrible, incessant stirring reminded Hatfield of the convulsions of some vile reptile. It seemed that there were no bones in this writhing body under the shriveled muscles. . Huge empty - unseeing - eye sockets stared into space. Wheezing escaped from a festering toothless ulcer that gaped where the mouth had been.

Feeling a fit of nausea, Hatwild straightened up and involuntarily stepped back so as not to see this terrible picture. He suppressed a feeling of disgust in himself, a wave of pity swept over him - and then it was replaced by blinding rage.

What was done to him? - The question was an unyielding demand for an answer.

Old Manuel shrugged his shoulders, expressively in Spanish, and uttered the sacramental phrase of the Mexicans, which always helps them out when they meet with the incomprehensible:

Who knows?

Hatfield looked at the recumbent. During his years as a ranger, he had seen more than once traces of the most sophisticated tortures generated by Spanish and Indian fantasy, but this was something new.

Some kind of poison, perhaps, he suggested. And again a wave of insane rage swept through his entire being. Rage to those from whom this monstrous cruelty emanated.

Meteorites and asteroids are the heavy artillery of space. They plowed up, opened its crust to the very depths of the mantle, covered the surface with scatterings of craters. Our Earth, unlike an airless satellite, is protected from space rocks. In it, most of the "aliens" burn out before they touch the surface. But there are meteorites that break through the barrier and are capable of destroying entire cities and countries. Arizona Crater, also known as Barringer Crater and Devil's Canyon, reminds us of this - a trace from the closest meteorite fall to us.

How did the crater appear?

50 thousand years ago, the Arizona desert in the United States was not such a hot and dry place. Then it was a flowering field, crossed by forests and oak forests - the landscape was somewhat reminiscent of the forest-steppes of Ukraine and Russia. Mammoths and giant sloths roamed them, not much inferior in size to mammoths. The valley was cut by numerous rivers, and the rains were plentiful; nothing prevented the lush growth of vegetation. But one day the primitive idyll was interrupted.

The peaceful slumber was torn apart by a bright flash, and then a growing thunder - a fireball appeared in the sky, which collapsed to the Earth with lightning speed. A meteorite with a girth of 50 meters and a mass of 300 thousand tons cannot be called large - there are hundreds of times larger. Nevertheless, the explosion from the fall of the Arizona meteorite was colossal. The power was 150 megatons of TNT equivalent, which is three times more powerful than the most powerful detonated nuclear charge in history, the Tsar Bomba. This is not strange, because the fallen space rock belonged to the "heavy class" of meteorites containing a lot of nickel and iron.

The force of the impact of the meteorite devastated the surroundings. The 7-magnitude earthquake reached over 300 kilometers, and the sound of the explosion was as strong as the noise of an active construction site. A fireball with a radius of 700 meters rose above the horizon - its radiation set fire to grass and trees nearby. Rain from rubble and debris covered the area with a radius of 100 kilometers. And the meteorite itself half evaporated from the force of its own impact - and its fragments scattered around the crater and its environs.

Arizona Crater is visited by thousands of tourists, but they are not allowed to go down. On our site, with the help of Google StreetView, you can walk along the bottom of the crater like a real scientist!

Arizona meteorite crater today

However, time passed, and the Earth healed the wound on itself. Water and air smoothed out the outlines of the crater and transformed its appearance - it even managed to visit a lake into which nearby rivers flowed. The bottom was covered with sedimentary soil and seasonal vegetation, growing after rare desert rains, and the edges were smoothed. But the peculiarities of the desert climate of Arizona allowed the crater to be preserved better than many of its counterparts. Today we highlight:

• A funnel with a diameter of 1.2 kilometers and a depth of 170 meters. A small skyscraper will fit in it with a horse! In addition, the rim of the crater rises to a height of 46 meters.
• Unusual shape of the crater. Usually, impact marks are round or ellipsoid - and the Arizona crater, which was photographed from the air back in the early 20th century, resembles a rounded square, like a chocolate bar. Scientists explain such anomalous outlines by shifts in the earth's crust caused by the impact force.

• The largest well-preserved crater on the planet. Yes, on Earth there are funnels from meteorites and more. The record holder, the Vredefort crater, stretches for 125 kilometers in all directions - several dwarf European countries could fit in its area. However, it is only possible to understand that Vredefort is a crater from a satellite. Water, wind and movement blurred the clarity of its shape. And the Arizona crater is not only intact, but also looks almost fresh, as if a meteorite fell recently.

Although the Indians have been collecting meteorite metal fragments for spears and arrows since ancient times, scientists have long thought that the Arizona crater was left from a volcano, and not from a cosmic body. However, the engineer Daniel Berringer, after whom the crater was named, thought otherwise. He believed that only a meteorite could dig such a huge bowl-shaped hole, and he hoped to find it under the crater and enrich himself. He bought the entire territory of the crater and searched for the remains of space iron for decades. According to legend, he died of a heart attack when physicists calculated that there was nothing to look for underground.

However, now the crater brings his family a considerable income. Scientists are looking for minerals on the inviolable bottom of the crater that can give them doctoral degrees, tourists admire the majestic remains of a cosmic explosion from observation platforms. In the USA, the Arizona crater is called the "Grave of Hats" - a strong wind rages over the edges of the funnel, which blows caps and hats of dozens of tourists into the inviolable bottom of the crater. And it was in the crater that the astronauts of the Apollo program worked out a mission to the moon. After all, this is the only place on Earth whose landscape repeats the relief of our satellite.

If the Earth did not have a protective layer of the atmosphere and water space (this is two-thirds of the entire surface of the planet), then life would not have appeared on our planet. The earth would be empty, rocky, like our satellite the Moon - only funnels from meteorite impacts. But the Earth is alive, from space it looks very attractive. In 1891, in the desert US state of Arizona, an amazingly shaped giant crater was discovered, which raised many questions among scientists: is it either the remains of an extinct volcano, or ... a blow from an alien spacecraft looking for a new haven. But why not a funnel from a meteorite, an inquisitive reader will ask. Could meteorites of this size reach the Earth, and where are its melted remnants?

This unusual attraction in the state of Arizona is visited with interest by scientists and tourists. They see a strange formation on the surface of the Earth, which has long been called the Devil's Canyon or Berringer Crater, after its explorer. The crater is located 30 km from the town of Winslow and 56 km from the city of Flagstaff. It can be seen from afar - a mountainous cone rises above the horizon. The closer to it, the more distinct it becomes. Its height from ground level reaches 50 m. Climbing the ridge, you see a giant bowl in front of you, the diameter of which is 1200 m and the depth is 180 m. The sight is charming and exciting. It seems that you have landed on an uninhabited planet. Scientists note the great similarity of the crater with the lunar surface.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, everyone believed that this was the crater of an extinct volcano. There were too many coincidences. But the local Indians, who found various metal fragments, claimed that many, many years ago, aliens who arrived from the depths of heaven set up their camp in the desert and then flew away. At the parking lot of their starship, a large round funnel remained. Probably, it was the gods from outer space who visited the Earth, the natives were sure.

"PLATES" OVER THE CANYON

Local Indians were echoed by some visiting tourists. They said that supposedly sometimes at night the sky above the canyon glows in a special way and every hour it gets brighter. There were those who saw strange apparatuses descending in the form of saucers, now called UFOs (unidentified flying objects). In addition, there is a version that the crater emits geomagnetic waves and thus communicates with arriving aliens.

These various fantastical and frightening stories have given the canyon its popular name - Devil's Canyon. It is clear that the majority of scientists treated and still treat these stories with irony and great skepticism. Some of them have their own argument: the Arizona crater resembles the crater of the famous Italian volcano Vesuvius, which is located near Naples. Scientists believe that this similarity determines their uniformity and commonality. But is it really so?

VOLCANIC CRATER

The word "crater" - Greek, is translated as "bowl". Such craters are formed during volcanic eruptions and can reach several kilometers in diameter. At the bottom of the crater there is usually one vent, less often several, through which lava and other volcanic products rising from the magma chamber come to the surface.

At first glance at the Arizona crater, the thought really comes that these are the remains of an extinct volcano. Perhaps in a few million years, or maybe millennia, the crater of the current Vesuvius will sink and turn into a copy of Arizona. True, it depends on the underground forces that operate under it. There are craters on Earth much larger than Arizona. So, in Antarctica on Wilkes Island in 1962, a meteorite crater with a diameter of 241 km and a depth of 800 m was discovered.

In Canada, on the coast of the Hudson Bay there is a crater with a diameter of 443 km, but the Arizona crater is special, it is the best preserved, amenable to study, and filmmakers love it - it is a wonderful natural object for filming adventure and science fiction films.

ARIZONA CRATER STUDY

Who left a giant imprint in Arizona: a volcano, aliens or meteorites?

This question haunted many American scientists for many years. In numerous disputes the truth was not born in any way. Serious and large-scale research was required, for which there was no money. The greatest contribution to the study of the Arizona crater was made by the American mining engineer and explorer from Philadelphia, Daniel Moreau Berringer. He was very interested in the mystery of the appearance of such a giant crater in the desert.

Berringer immediately questioned the idea of ​​its volcanic origin. In the state of Arizona, there are no conditions for the emergence of volcanoes - everything is calm underground, no magma threatens to flow out. He drilled in several places and found no signs of rocks of volcanic origin. But the validity of the theory put forward in 1902 Berringer had yet to prove.

The researcher bought a small plot of land at the bottom of the Arizona crater and began deep drilling there. He hired workers, brought equipment. The survey was carried out in difficult conditions: heat, lack of water, remoteness from urban infrastructure. The first rock samples showed that there are no elements of volcanic origin in it.

Drilling continued. And suddenly, at a depth of 420 m, the drill stopped, as if it ran into an insurmountable barrier. What's happened? They raised the drill to the surface, its incisors were completely worn off. At first glance, it became clear that the drill rested on the ferruginous material. When they checked samples of the material from the drill in the laboratory, they established: these are iron-nickel particles. So it's a meteorite? Meteorites contain iron and nickel. What are its volumes underground? If you start the industrial development of nickel in an open way, you can enrich yourself.

EPILOGUE OF THE METEORITE THEORY

But Barringer's further efforts did not lead to anything - there were no people who wanted to start developing the "meteorite deposit". Drilling has stopped. The bankrupt Berringer in 1909 gave the data of his research to the US Academy of Sciences, which finally officially recognized that the Arizona crater was formed as a result of the fall of a celestial body.

And many years later, already in the era of computer diagnostics at the end of the 20th century, Berringer's version was fully confirmed. Scientists have determined that about 50 thousand years ago a celestial body burst into the Earth's atmosphere, most likely an iron-nickel meteorite 30-40 m in size. The estimated mass is 70,000 tons, although some scientists believed that its weight could reach 2 million tons. The speed of movement when approaching the Earth was 70 thousand km per hour. The vast majority of the meteorite burned up in the layers of the atmosphere. When hitting the ground, the meteorite partially evaporated, partially split. Pieces from a few hundred grams to 500 kg scattered for many kilometers around. The impact force was about 40 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima in 1945. A giant funnel formed - a crater.

Fragments of the meteorite were found by the Indians at a distance of up to 10 km from the crater. The same fragments were found in the ground at a depth of 420 m by Berringer while drilling.

The resulting funnel is practically the only place on Earth that resembles a lunar landscape. It is no coincidence that the Americans trained astronauts in this crater before the flight to the Moon in 1969, and eliminated the shortcomings of spacesuits. Thus, Devil's Canyon played a role in the exploration of the moon. Now it is a place of pilgrimage for tourists from all over the world.

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