Canyon Diablo (meteorite)
The Canyon Diablo meteorite refers to the many fragments of the asteroid that created Meteor Crater (also called Barringer Crater), Arizona, United States. Meteorites have been found around the crater rim, and are named for nearby Canyon Diablo, which lies about three to four miles west of the crater. History. The asteroid fell about 50,000 years ago. The meteorites have been known and used by pre-historic Native Americans, and collected and studied by the scientific community since the 19th century. Meteor Crater, from the late 19th to the early 20th century, was the center of a  long dispute over the origin of craters that showed little evidence of volcanism. That debate was largely settled by the early 1930s, thanks to work by Daniel M. Barringer, F.R. Moulton, Harvey Harlow Nininger, and Eugene Shoemaker. In 1953, Clair Cameron Patterson measured ratios of the lead isotopes in samples of the meteorite. The result permitted a refinement of the estimate of the age of the Earth to 4.550 billion years (± 70 million years). Composition and classification. This meteorite is an iron octahedrite (coarse octahedrite). Minerals reported from the meteorite include: Samples may contain troilite-graphite nodules with metal  veins and small diamonds. Fragments. The biggest fragment ever found is the , weighing , now on display in the Meteor Crater Visitor Center on the rim of the crater. Other famous fragments: