• Type: Iron / Octahedrite IAB - MG
• Location: Arizona, USA
• Weight: 45.5 g
• Size: 4.3 x 3 x 1.2 cm
• Year of discovery: 1891
• Known total weight: 30 tonnes
• Surface treatment: none – Rough
• DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Canyon Diablo meteorite – Creator of the Barringer crater The Canyon Diablo meteorite impacted Earth approximately 50,000 years ago, forming the Barringer Crater, also known as Meteor Crater, which is approximately 1.6 km in diameter and 170 meters deep. This crater is located in Arizona, USA, and is one of the best-preserved meteorite impact craters on Earth. The meteorite is named after the nearby Canyon Diablo, about 5 km west of the crater. The meteorite was discovered in 1891 and has attracted scientific interest ever since due to its composition and the number of fragments found. Its pieces contain rare minerals, including diamonds formed under extreme pressure during the impact. Classification and composition Canyon Diablo is an IAB-MG type iron meteorite, primarily composed of kamacite (an iron-nickel alloy, ~90%). It also contains 1–4% taenite, another iron-nickel alloy, and crystals of schreibersite and troilite. Cohenite, a hard iron carbide, is also often present. Samples exposed to intense impact show signs of partial melting, recrystallization, Neumann bands, and other deformations. One of the most significant effects is the transformation of graphite into diamond and lonsdaleite, which appear as visible dark material when cut. Diamond blades deflect when they encounter these zones. Fragments Upon impact, the Canyon Diablo meteorite shattered into thousands of fragments. The largest known piece is the Holsinger meteorite, weighing 639 kg, now displayed at the Meteor Crater museum. Fragments over 10 kg are rare, and those over 100 kg are extremely scarce. The estimated total weight of the fragments found is over 30 tonnes. On many meteorite pieces, especially near the crater rim, the Widmanstätten pattern was destroyed by the explosion during impact. Mining history Daniel M. Barringer, a mining engineer and entrepreneur, proposed in 1903 that the crater was created by a large iron meteorite and obtained a mining permit for 640 acres around the crater. He estimated the meteorite's weight at 100 million tons and envisioned mining the buried metal. At the time, approximately 30 tons of oxidized meteorite fragments lay scattered in the area. This led Barringer to believe that the main body of the impactor was still buried beneath. He spent 27 years searching and drilled down to 419 meters deep but found no significant deposits. Discovery in 1929 In 1929, astronomer F. R. Moulton, working for the Barringer Crater Company, concluded that the impactor weighed only 300,000 tons and that the heat of the impact was sufficient to instantly vaporize it. Barringer died ten days after Moulton's second report was published. 1963 Research Scientists compared the crater to those produced by nuclear tests and estimated that 1.7 megatons of energy were needed to create it. This would correspond to an object weighing 63,000 tons traveling at 14.5 km/s. An estimated 30 tons of fragments have been collected. The fine material around the crater contains an estimated total of 8,000 tons of iron, leaving approximately 55,000 tons to speculate about. Most of it vaporized, while some remains as samples near the crater. Spherical iron droplets have been found northeast of the crater. Until recently, meteorite hunters with metal detectors continued to find new specimens.