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Arizona Meteorite Crater Mystery Solved
AP via Yahoo ^ | 3/9/05

Posted on 03/09/2005 10:19:19 AM PST by ZGuy

It's a mystery that has puzzled scientists for years but researchers said Wednesday they have discovered why there isn't much melted rock at the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona.

An iron meteorite traveling up to 12 miles per second was thought to have blasted out the huge hole measuring three-quarters of a mile across in the desert.

The impact of an object at that speed should have left large volumes of melted rock at the site. But British and American scientists said the reason it didn't was because the meteorite was traveling slower than previously estimated.

"We conclude that the fragmented iron projectile probably struck the surface at a velocity of about 12 km (7.5 miles) (per second)," said Professor H. Jay Melosh, of the University of Arizona, in a report in the science journal Nature.

Meteor Crater, which was formed about 50,000 years ago, was the first terrestrial crater identified as a meteorite impact scar.

Melosh and Gareth Collins, of Imperial College London, used a simple model to calculate the speed on impact. They showed the meteorite had slowed when it hit the Earth's atmosphere and broke into fragments before it struck the Earth.

They calculated the impact velocity was about 26,800 miles per hour.

"Even though iron is very strong, the meteorite had probably been cracked from collisions in space," Melosh said in a statement.

"The weakened pieces began to come apart and shower down from about 8.5 miles high. As they came apart, atmospheric drag slowed them down, increasing the forces that crushed them so that they crumbled and slowed more," he added.

The scientists said that at about 3 miles altitude, most of the meteorite was spread in a large cloud.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Arizona
KEYWORDS: archaeology; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; theskyisfalling
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To: Nick Danger

The crater appears to be square with rounded corners. Maybe octagonal. Not particularly round.


101 posted on 03/09/2005 3:14:54 PM PST by RightWhale (Please correct if cosmic balance requires.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Sedona and the ghost town of Jerome are just awesome.
102 posted on 03/09/2005 3:18:20 PM PST by varina davis
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To: OXENinFLA

too much of and amazing coincedence that the metoer landed right at the end of the road. i find that suspicious. thing had to be steered in to land that precisely.


103 posted on 03/09/2005 3:21:53 PM PST by beebuster2000
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To: Nick Danger

Looks like it came in over the Pole, the higher
debris part of the crater is to the south.


104 posted on 03/09/2005 3:32:01 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Husker8877

LOL! My apologies for being cold and heartless.

That would be a scene wouldn't it. They'd all be little flat smoking pancakes. Of course, all they would have to do is blow on their thumbs and pop! all would be right again.

Sounds like you are a fan of the old cartoons. My preference are the looney tunes.


105 posted on 03/09/2005 3:37:07 PM PST by dhs12345
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To: ZGuy
Meteor. Hunh.

I always thought it was this guy:

Dan

106 posted on 03/09/2005 3:48:19 PM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
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To: BibChr
Prehistoric AntLion
107 posted on 03/09/2005 3:57:31 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: ZGuy

Wonderful.

Now call me when they figure out what happened to Judge Crater.


108 posted on 03/09/2005 4:08:46 PM PST by exit82 (Ted Kennedy--swimming in lies since 1969.)
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To: DannyTN

Whoa.

Think of the SIZE of that bad boy!

Dan


109 posted on 03/09/2005 4:16:19 PM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
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To: ZGuy

SPOTREP


110 posted on 03/09/2005 8:28:16 PM PST by LiteKeeper (The radical secularization of America is happening)
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To: Strategerist
"Are you for real or just trolling?"

"Strategerist...Since Jun 6, 2004"

Yer implying that a 3.5-year FReeper is a troll and you ain't been here a year?!

MUD

111 posted on 03/10/2005 12:33:29 PM PST by Mudboy Slim (Dan Rather...FReeped Outta Existence!!)
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To: OXENinFLA

I have had that same view a few times. Pretty impressive for a hole in the ground. ;~))


112 posted on 03/10/2005 12:41:34 PM PST by Ditto ( No trees were killed in sending this message, but billions of electrons were inconvenienced.)
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To: blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SunkenCiv; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; 4ConservativeJustices; ...
Catastrophism ping. Answer to the question, what happened to Erectus in America? :')
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest
-- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

113 posted on 04/16/2005 9:04:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: Just another Joe

And his father bombed Pearl Harbor.


114 posted on 04/16/2005 9:09:13 PM PDT by U S Army EOD (My US Army daughter out shot everybody in her basic training company.)
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To: SunkenCiv
"what happened to Erectus in America?"

I've often wondered how many humans were killed in this impact?

115 posted on 04/16/2005 9:21:23 PM PDT by blam
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Add a house boat on Lake Powell and a trip up through Utah (including the gorgeous Bryce Canyon) and a bit of Nevada, you described my last years summer vacation. It was fabulous. Heck I'm deathly afraid of heights and it was still fantastic. Very GREAT!

The kiddos were more impressed with the crater gift shop than the crater buttt I don't think they will ever forget the crater. We went there because my husband went as a kid and was impressed.

116 posted on 04/16/2005 9:43:10 PM PDT by lizma
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Another solution to the problem -- one that is more plausible -- is that arrived at by Eugene Shoemaker in the 1950s ("FG'sS", as if I need to add it); another possibility is that the straw man underlying the supposed problem is solved by not assuming there was iron involved in the first place.


117 posted on 04/16/2005 9:47:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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To: ProudVet77
"It's pretty much in the middle of no where, but if you can get to see it, it's quite something."

I helped install a sound system and looped tour tape in 1962. I was working up there and we had to get the job done so we were still working at 2 in the AM. Now I am terrified of height.

The boss man had me out on the little wooden steps along the way and the speakers had to be mounted on the roof eaves. When the sun came up I could see that I was working without belt on perches over 100 above the next step.

I shook for a week.

On top of that, the boss insisted he drive his 1960 Caddy back to our shop in Phoenix and he kept falling asleep. The road was the newly opened I17 and he was whooping down the road at 90 plus but hitting the edges when he fell asleep. I finally made him stop and let me drive about 6:30 AM.

Never forget that night!
118 posted on 04/16/2005 9:47:56 PM PDT by lawdude (Liberalism is a mental disease.)
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To: lawdude
I shook for a week.

LOL! I would have had a heart attack on the spot!

119 posted on 04/16/2005 9:59:38 PM PDT by lizma
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To: DannyTN

"It's a lot more believable than that God miscommunicated."

God does not err, but people do.

We get things wrong. God says, "Fornication is a sin," and we hear, "Unless you're engaged. Or unless you're really in love. Or unless the other person is really, really hot."

When we start educating our children, we don't start with advanced subjects. We start with what they can understand at their stage of development, and continue from there.

You have to think God does the same. How are you going to explain "billions of years" to people who can't count past a thousand? Even if you tried, when they repeated it back, it would be garbled.

If I may suggest, download "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis, and search for the word "mirror." See his discussion on our perceptions of God.

Some things in the Bible are allegorical. When Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd," He didn't mean that He actually kept sheep and was skilled at ovine husbandry.

The theological truth contained in Genesis is that God created everything in the universe. The people who wrote Genesis explained it as best they could, but their horizons were limited. To insist on six-day creation in the face of overwhelming evidence that God did things differently is really pretty silly.


120 posted on 04/16/2005 10:05:35 PM PDT by dsc
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