Some 50,000 years ago, a huge iron-nickel meteorite, hurtling at about 40,000 miles per hour, struck the rocky plain of Northern Arizona with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT. It is estimated that the meteorite was about 150 feet across and weighted several hundred thousand tons. Within a few seconds, the impact caused a crater 700 feet deep and over 4000 feet across. Large blocks of limestone, some the size of small houses were heaved onto the rim. Flat-lying beds of rock in the crater walls were overturned in fractions of a second and uplifted permanently as much as 150 feet.

Nowadays, the crater is 550 feet deep, and 2.4 miles in circumference. This means that twenty football games could be played simultaneously on its floor, while more than two million spectators could be observing from its sloping sides.

In 1902, Daniel Moreau Barringer, a Philadelphia mining engineer, became interested in the site as a potential source for mining iron. He later visited the crater and was convinced that it had been formed by the impact of a large iron meteorite. He further assumed that this body was buried beneath the crater floor.

In 1903, Barringer formed the Standard Iron Company and had four placer mining claims filed with the federal Government, thus obtaining the patents and ownership of the two square miles containing the crater. Barringer spent the next 26 years attempting to find what he believed would be the giant iron meteorite. Barringer never found what he was looking for, as the meteorite underwent total disintegration during impact through vaporization, melting and fragmentation. He did eventually prove to the scientific community that the crater was the site of a meteorite impact.

The topographical terrain of Meteor Crater so closely resembles that of the Earth's moon and other planets, NASA designated it as one of the official training sites for the Apollo Astronauts. The U.S. Government deemed the crater a Natural Landmark in 1968.

The land that includes the crater is still privately owned by the Barringer family. They lease the crater to Meteor Crater Enterprises, who operates the visitors center at the rim. Meteor Crater's Visitors Center includes a Museum of Astrogeology and an Astronaut Hall of Fame, gift shop and snack bar. Meteor Crater's Museum of Astrogeology provides visitors with a casual self-guided tour of exhibits and video presentations vividly portraying how the meteorite impacted, the devastation that resulted, and the significant role that the Crater plays in the study of earth and space sciences. A 1,406-lb. meteorite, the largest ever found in the area, is on display for visitors to view and touch. You can view the crater from three different look-out points, and a guided rim trail hike, weather permitting, is included in the price of admission, which runs daily from 9:15 am to 2:15 p.m. Meteor Crater Visitors Center is open 365 days a year.

The Barringer Crater is in northern Arizona 200 km northeast from Phoenix and more that 3000 km southwest from Washington D.C.