Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1906-06-06
OENTED BY A METEORlTE,
Hole 400 Feet Deep and Throo-Uinhs Mile
wide in Arizona.

ALnAt 500 r. tNh AAffIf anu ANNNHAAA AAAAA AAAAN
wide iu Arizona.
New York sum-
In Coconino county, Arizona, about
five miles south of Sunshine Station,
on the Santa Fe Railroad, is O very
remarkable ominence rising above am
almost perfectly level plain and known
locally as Coon Butte or Coon Noun
tain.
This so-called mountain consists Of
@ circular ridge from l30 TO 100 feet In
height surrounding an almost circular
depression IN the earth about 400 feet
deep and approx imately three-iifths of
mile 10 diameter. From the bottom
of the depression TO the crest of the
ridge surrounding it the distance is
from $50 TO $50 feet.
This depression has a general re-
semhlance 10 % crater, and a superficial
glance conveys the impression that 10
WIS really the crater of volcano
/ which became extinct ages ago. GeolQ-
| gists, however, soon observed that the
rim around the craterlike depression
/ is not composed of volcanic outpour-
ings. The hole is found To penetrate
| from 20 10 40 feet of red sandstone,
/ then from $50 Co $50 feet of yeliowish
limestone, then a light gray sandstone
| and hnally a brownisn sandstone IN
which it terminates.
These same level strata, formed
when the land was covered with water,
extend over the plain In all directions
/ for many miles. The theory that the
so-called crater could have been
formed by volcano may be set aside
as impossible.
Another theory was that this re-
| markable hole was the result of @
steam explosion, but the latest investi-
| gators have found many reasons for
| believing that this explanation Is in
credible. The vast amount of steam
| required To do this work could be
stored up only in regions of volcanic
activity. There is no evidence that
such a region ever existed here.
Daniel Nj. Barringer, geologlst, and
b. c. Tilghman, physicist and chem
ist, have been giving "a great deal OF
time to investigating this phenomenon,
and the Academy of Natural Sciences,
Philadelphia, has just printed their
results. They have collected an aston
ishing amount of evidence in favor OF
the theory that this great hole m the
earth was produced by the impact of
an iron body falling out Of space and
moving, of course, 40 terrific speed.
The body must have been o very
largo meteorite or a small asteroid,
and in making this deep hole lt moi
only ground an immense quantity OF
rock INTO fine PARTICLES and almost I'M
paluable dust, of which large part
Of the crater rim is formed, but NJ was
itself to a large extent broken int
silvers by the terrific force OF the col
lision.
Borinas have revealed many small
fragments and splinters Of 10 TO a CON
siderable depth, but no large piece hai
vet been found beneath the floor of The
crater. On the other hand, about i,
tons Of the meteoritic iron have been
collected from around the crater anC
sent TO tine various museums of th'
world. Several thousand pieces have
been discovered shattered all arounl
the crater and % % distance of two anC
a half miles from it, and there ar,
millions of PARTICLES Of 10 scattered la
around the crater.
Like other meteoric objects coming
to us from the skies, these counties
fragments contain lrOni nlchel
iridium and platinum.
A double compartment shaft is nov
being sunk in the exact centre Of th
I crater. Unless insurmountable am
culties are met 10 will be sunk to sucl
a depth as will show whether or no
any large part of the body lies burie'
several hundred feet below the floor o
the crater
There are some geographical evi
dences pointing toIthe probability tha
as time is measured IN geological
epochs the fall of this meteorite mus
have been a comparatively recent oc
curronce. Mr.. Tilghman names 1000
years as the utmost possible limit
but believes that a period inside g
: 5000 years is much more nearly D
accord with the facts.