Canyon Diablo (meteorite)
The Canyon Diablo meteorite was found around the famous Barringer Crater in Arizona .
The impact event took place around 50,000 years ago, which means that the crater has a relatively low geological age. The crater has a diameter of 1,186 meters and is 170 meters deep. The associated meteorite had an estimated diameter of 45 meters, a mass of 300,000 tons and hit at a speed of 15 to 30 km / s (~ 55,000–110,000 km / h). Of the total original mass of the meteorite, only 30 tons have been found so far.
The meteorite comes from the asteroid belt and is classified as a Group IA coarse octahedrite . Using uranium-lead dating on the Canyon Diablo, Clair Cameron Patterson and Friedrich Georg Houtermans first inferred the earth's age of 4.55 billion years in the 1950s .
Chemical composition: 91.6% iron ; 7.1% nickel ; 1% carbon ; 1% sulfur ; 0.26% phosphorus ; 80 ppm gallium ; 320 ppm germanium ; 1.9 ppm iridium . Henri Moissan discovered the mineral moissanite named after him in these meteorites in 1893 .
See also
Web links
- Meteoritical Bulletin Database: Canyon Diablo