EP Will Love This

[E.P. Grondine]

What's the building close to the rim Min?

Roy.

Visitors' Center at Barringer Crater. They sell "Man and Impact in the Americas" there.
Navajo enjoy it.

[Digit]

Ta!

Roy.

[Minimalist]

Yes and a fairly nice Visitor's Center at that. Complete with theater, museum, Astronaut memorial, Subway Sandwich Shop and the inevitable gift shop.

A mere six miles south of US Route 40...between Winslow and Flagstaff, Az.

[dannan14]

'cept for the Subway that sounds really cool. Can you hike into the crater? or it the entire thing too steep?

[E.P. Grondine]

Yes and a fairly nice Visitor's Center at that. Complete with theater, museum, Astronaut memorial, Subway Sandwich Shop and the inevitable gift shop.

A mere six miles south of US Route 40...between Winslow and Flagstaff, Az.

that "inevitable gift shop" has some really nice small meteorites, including chips from the Barringer impactor, and dinosaur gullet stones for sale at VERY reasonable prices.

[E.P. Grondine]

'cept for the Subway that sounds really cool. Can you hike into the crater? or it the entire thing too steep?

The crater is real, real deep. You can see how deep it is by how small the buildings look at the bottom of it.

The tour runs out along the rim, and there's stairs part of the way down into the crater from the Visitor's Center.

I don't know if they run academic or geological trips to the floor, but my guess is these would be only by appointment and reservation with explicit waivers of liability to join, if open to the public at all. It would be easy enough to contact them to find out.

[Minimalist]

They run guided tours along the rim. Didn't see anything about trails to the bottom. As E.P. says, that would not be for the faint of heart.
Going down would be difficult enough but climbing back up would require the stamina of a marathoner. Remember that the entire Colorado Plateau is already 6,000 feet up or so and the air is already a bit thin. We were hiking a bit around Sedona which is a thousand feet lower and I thought I was having a heart attack.

That Subway looked pretty good by the time we got to it.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Closing my eyes for a second visualising this particular impact makes me shudder. That will have been one impressive explosion...
Anyone know how this one would rate in comparison to Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

[Minimalist]

I just posted a series of photos I took from the inside of the crater in the Photo Section.

http://archaeologica.boardbot.com/viewt ... 44&start=0

[Digit]

What has caused the 'terracing' of the walls Min?
Is it a product of the impact, varying strata or erosion?

Roy.

[Minimalist]

When you get to see some of the buttes out here up close and personal, like this one,





the different strata of rock becomes readily apparent. So, 700 feet down into the bedrock you are going to find that same strata. It's all sedimentary rock out here but some is harder than others. Add in the effects of erosion and I guess you end up with the apparent terracing.

I would expect the impact to have blasted everything to kingdom come but I'll let E.P. add his expertise on the issue.

[Digit]

Next question Min. How do you pronounce Buttes?

Roy.

[Minimalist]

Byoots


B as in banana


y as in yew


oo as moo


all in one syllable

[Digit]

Ta! Where does the name come from Min, any idea?

Roy.

[Minimalist]

I always thought it was French...although I have no idea where that came from now that I think about it.