Canyon Diablo
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Fallen around fifty-thousand years ago and known to the people endemic to the region of northern Arizona for thousands of years, the Canyon Diablo meteorite was scientifically discovered during the course of the nineteenth century. The meteorite itself approximates to 5 billion years of age, as compared to the Earth which itself a mere 4.6 billion years old.
The impact of the meteorite is the agent responsible for the Meteorite Crater near Flagstaff, Arizona, also known Barringer’s Crater and at one point, Canyon Diablo Crater. The impact left a crater that is over 1200 metres across and 200 metres deep. It has been estimated that the meteorite itself may have weighed 700,000 tonnes. At present, 30 tonnes of meteorite fragments has been collected, the largest fragment weighing in at 639kg. The meteorite itself was of predominately iron nickel composition which composes 90% of recovered material in addition to a laundry list of additional ores present within its chemical composition. |
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