Barringer Crater, more popularly known as Meteor Crater, was created by the impact of a meteor about 50,000 years ago.

Meteor Crater - Flagstaff visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Meteor Crater' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from Arizona.

Meteor Crater is about 35 miles east of Flagstaff in Arizona, between Two Guns and Leupp Corner. The crater is close to Canyon Diablo, and was formerly called 'Canyon Diablo Crater'. While scientists refer to the site as the Barringer Crater, after Daniel Barringer, most locals and tourists know it as 'Meteor Crater'. It is owned by the Barringer Family and is now a popular, ticketed, local tourist attraction for those visiting the nearby Grand Canyon. The family claim that Meteor Crater is 'the first proven, best-preserved meteorite crater on earth.' This panorama, taken from the top of the crater rim, shows why.

As the common name suggests, Barringer Crater was created by a meteor impact. It is now thought that this was a nickel-iron meteorite about 50 meters across which hit the earth about 50,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch. Travelling about 12.8 kilometers per second (28,600mph), the impact produced a crater 1,200 m (4,000 ft) in diameter and 170 m deep (570 ft), with a rim rising 45 m (150 ft) above the surrounding plain. It is thought that the meteor would have weighed in at about 300,000 tonnes as it approached earth, but half of this vapourized as it past through the atmosphere, leaving 150,000 tones of nickel-iron to impact the earth.

Recent studies suggest that the meteor came in from the north, and much of the remaining meteor may still be buried under the southern rim of the crater, which shows sign of uplift. The impact released 2.5 megatons of TNT (about 150 times the yield of the atomic bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and ejected 175 million tons of rock.

Meteor Crater Enterprises, Inc.
P.O. Box 30940
Flagstaff, AZ 86003-0940 USA

Road: Meteor Crater off exit 233 on Interstate 40, about 35 miles east of Flagstaff and 20 miles west of Winslow. Meteor Crater is a paid attraction, entrance fees apply.