The Winslow mail., 1926-04-30


undoubted iron meteors that have
been picked up around the crater.
1t would be asking too much OF the
long arm of coincidence to be-
lieve that a vagrant meteoric show
er chose this one spot on which to
land.
The second theory, that of a
steam blowout, seems hardly wor-
thy of consideration. 1t has been
proved by scores of drill holes that
there is, at a depth of approximate
ly 900 feet below the floor Of the
crater, a bed of solid red sandstone
which is completely Undisturbed,
while the strata above it are indie
scribably fractured. No explosion
of steam, may be added, could pos
sibly have crushed the sandstone
into the rock floor mentioned pre-
viously; that could be done only by
tremendous, smashing impact.
This leaves us only the theory of
meteor, either a single mass or
an aggregation of smaller bodies
such as constitute the nucleus or
head" of a comet-and this is the
theory that is now accepted by
practically all the scientific mer
who have examined tho crater.
SnecnIationS As To Sire
If we accept the meteor theory. it
becomes interesting tn determine
what it's size rnust have been and
to determine also it's present po-
sition.
We know what the effoot of the
imnact was. To reca nituIate:
II dug. in solid sedimentarv rock
crater three quarters of mile in
dprth.
IT overturned rock et~o+a from
tho horizontal to tho vertical,
II threw o-t of the c~o+nr +h"e
formed not less than 300 100000
tors of dohrie
It crnehnd millions of tons IF
sandstone to an almost impalpable
powder
If now we knew the rate Of
sDeed at the moment nf impact. it
would he an paSv matter TO detor-
mine the size. hut there is wide
nOssihle variation here. IF tho mo-
teor were following the earth in ifs
nath around tho sun it was mOvino
at more thon 10 miles ner second.
that beinp the rate of travel Of our
olOhe. Under such circUm stances,
II NAV have struck the earth's sur
face at . Sheed of not more than
three or four miles nnr second and
we NAV ASSUME its total enood at
not much more than % or "a miles
SunnOSa, however. that if was
moviro in a direction 0nn0eitn to
that of the earth throuoh enace. In
this case we would add to the pre-
sumed snned of % miles the 10
miles of the earth's motion and
would have the terrific speed of
AZ miles. less. of course. the re-
tardation caused by the passage
through the earth's atmOsnhere.
A moments thought will show
that there is too great a spread"
here to admit of forming anvthin@
like a logical conclusion. It may
he noted. however that the lower
the speed Of IMPACT. the larger the
body must have been to produce
| the given results.
Taking the most conservative
view of sneed attained, we are
forced to the conclusion that the
meteOric mass must have weighed
not less than a million tons and
probably five times that much.
Where Is 1t?
If our argument, to this point, is
correct, there remains the very vi
tai question, "where is the main
mass of the meteor now?"
It is abundantly certain that it
must lie under the cliffs on the
southerly side of the crater, for it
| is at this point only that rock
strata are deformed and upturned.
1t is almost positive that it lies
approximately on TOP of the un-
disturbed "red bed" previously
mentioned, that is to say, at
depth of something less than 1000
feet from the surface. 1t remains
to determine the extent of it's hori-
zontal movement-and that can
only be done by the exploration
that is now about to begin.
Early Errors
Some hundreds of thousands of
dollars have been spent in tho
search for the meteor and while
| this search was conducted alone
| mistaken lines it has produced
valuable results.
The original thought was that
t the meteor struck the earth almost
vertically. and a shaft was begun
near the center of the crater II
was sunk Some 225 feet when it
had to he abandoned owing to en-
cOunterinr a Ouickeand formed
| largely Of the rock f1OUr 50 often
mentioned and tho natural drain
aoe water from the walls of the
crater. As an interesting sideli@ht
IN tho probable age of the crater.
If NAV bn mentioned that the in
tnriOr was once ? small lake as it
definitely nrovnd hv the shaft and
hv the drill holes as well IS hv
the marine fossils found in the old
lake bed.
Of these drill holes. score or
more We're sunk at various points
in the crater the extreme deDth at
tanned being 100 feet and seven of