Canyon Diablo (meteorite)

The Canyon Diablo meteorite refers to the many fragments of the asteroid that created Meteor Crater (also called Barringer Crater), Arizona, United States. Meteorites have been found around the crater rim, and are named for nearby Canyon Diablo, which lies about three to four miles west of the crater.

History

The impactor fell about 50,000 years ago. Initially known and used by pre-historic Native Americans, Canyon Diablo meteorites have been collected and studied by the scientific community since the 19th century. Meteor Crater, from the late 19th to the early 20th century, was the center of a long dispute over the origin of craters that showed little evidence of volcanism. That debate was largely settled by the early 1930s, thanks to work by Daniel M. Barringer, F.R. Moulton, and Harvey Harlow Nininger.

In 1953, Clair Cameron Patterson measured ratios of the lead isotopes in samples of the meteorite. Through U-Pb radiometric dating, a refined estimate of the age of the Earth was obtained: 4.550 billion years (± 70 million years).

Composition and classification

This meteorite is an iron octahedrite (coarse octahedrite). Minerals reported from the meteorite include:

• Cohenite – iron carbide
• Chromite – iron magnesium chromium oxide
• Daubréelite – iron(II) chromium sulfide
• Diamond and lonsdaleite – carbon
• Graphite – carbon
• Haxonite – iron nickel carbide
• Kamacite iron nickel alloy – the most common component.
• Base metal sulfides
• Schreibersite – iron nickel phosphide
• Taenite – iron nickel alloy
• Troilite – a variety of the iron sulfide mineral pyrrhotite. The troilite in this sample is used as the standard reference for sulfur isotope ratios.
• Moissanite – a variety of silicon carbide, the second hardest natural mineral.

Samples may contain troilite-graphite nodules with metal veins and small diamonds.

Fragments

File:Holsinger Meteorite.jpg

"Holsinger Meteorite", the biggest recovered fragment of the Canyon Diablo meteorite

File:Meteorite fragment from the Cañon Diablo Meteorite.jpg

Example of a small (90mm) fragment of the meteorite

The biggest fragment ever found is the Holsinger Meteorite, weighing , now on display in the Meteor Crater Visitor Center on the rim of the crater. Other famous fragments:

• , Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand. The largest fragment outside the United States.
• , Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.
• , Archenhold Observatory, Berlin, Germany.
• , Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
• , MINES ParisTech Mineralogy Museum, Paris School of Mines, France.
• , Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• , Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin.
• , Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California.
• , Van Vleck Observatory, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.
• , "Clark Iron," Meteorite Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles.
• , Geology Museum, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
• , Franklin Institute, Philadelphia.
• , Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California. Fragment loaned by the Geology Department of Pomona College.
• , California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.
• , Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.
• , Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey.
• , Branner Library, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
• , Peoria Riverfront Museum, Dome Planetarium, Peoria, Illinois.
• , Basket Meteorite, Meteor Crater Museum, Arizona.
• , Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia.
• , Laurence Edward Oram, Phoenix, Arizona
• 82 grams (2.8 oz), Peter H. D. McKee, Seattle, Washington
• , Robert Tullman, St. Petersburg, Florida.

See also

• Glossary of meteoritics
• δ ³⁴S
• Reference materials for stable isotope analysis

External links

• Mindat.org
• NASA research note