The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-09-11
DUG by A METEORITE.
Hole 400 Feet Deep and Three.
Fourths of u Mile Wide Made.


In Coconino County, Arizona, about
| five miles south of Sunshine Station,
on the Santa Fe Railroad is a very
remarkable eminence rising above an
almost perfectly level plain, and
known locally as Coon Butte or Coon
| Mountain.
This so-called mountain consists of
circular ridge from $50 to 160 feet
in height, surrounding an almost cir
cular depression in the earth about
400 feet deep and approximately
! three-fourths of mile in diameter.
From the bottom of the depression
to the crest of the ridge surrounding
it the distance is from $50 to $50
| feet.
The depression has a general re-
semblance to crater, and super
fetal glance conveys the impression
that it was really the crater of vol
cano which became extinct ages ago.
Biologists, however, soon observed
that the ring around the crater-like
depression is not composed of vol
canic outpourings. The hole is found
to penetrate from twenty to forty
feet to red sandstone, then from $50
to $50 feet of yellowish limestone,
then light gray sandstone and fin
ally brownlsh sandstone, in which
it terminates.
These same level strata, formed
when the land was covered with wa
tnt, nytanI 10, IL, Ill
rections 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 in
vestigators have found many reasons
| for believing that this explosion is
incredible. 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 region ever existed.
Daniel M. Barringer, geologist, and
B. c. Tilghmann, physicist and chem
ist, have been giving a great deal of
time to investigating this phenome-
non, and have just printed their re-
suits. They have collected an aston
ishing amount of evidence in favor
| of the theory that this great hole in
the earth was produced by the i'm
pact of an iron body falling out of
space and moving, of course, at ter
rife speed.
The body must have been very
large meteorite or small asteroid,
and in making this deep hole it not
| only ground an immense quantity of
| rock into fine particles of almost i'm
palpable dust, of which large part
of the crater rim is formed, but it
| was itself to large extent broken
into slivers by the terrific force of the
collision.
Borings have revealed many small
fragments and splinters of it to a
| considerable depth, but no large piece
has yet been found beneath the floor
of the crater. On the other hand,
about fifteen tons of the meteoric
iron have been collected from around
the crater and sent to the various
| museums of the world Several
thousand pieces have been discovered
scattered all around the crater and
to distance of two and a half miles
from it, and there are millions of par
ticles of it scattered far around the
| crater.
Like other meteoric objects coming
to us from the skies, these countless
fragments contain iron, nickel, urid-
ium and platinum.
A double compartment shaft is now
being sunk in the exact centre of the
crater. Unless insurmountable diff
ficulties are met 1t will be sunk to
such depth as will show whether or
not any large part of the body lies
buried several hundred feet below
! the floor of the crater.