Like fugitives on the run from distant solar systems, meteors hurtle through the Earth's atmosphere, lighting up the eyes of observers on the ground. Often these fireballs of metal and rock burn up in a blaze of glory, and many don't survive their impact with Earth's surface. Those that do though start a more settled life here on Earth as meteorites, they are huge and are resistant to the weather.
The Barringer Meteorite Crater in Arizona is a gigantic hole in the middle of the desert. Its rim is smashed and jumbled boulders, some of them the size of small houses, rise 150 feet above the level of the surrounding plain The crater is almost a mile wide and 570 feet deep.
When Europeans discoverd the crater, the plain around it was covered with chunks of meteorite iron-over 30 tons of it scattered over an area 8 to 10 miles in diameter. Scientist believe the impact of this crater was 150 times stronger then the bombs that were used on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ancient blast displaced 175,000,000 tons of rock.
Here is a list of five heavy weights of the meteorites that hit earth and are visible to see.
1. Sihhote-alin, Russia=largest known meteorite in the world==weighed 70 tons.
2. Hoba, Namibia=second largest, found in Namibia, weighed over 60 tons.
3. Campo del Cielo= Argentina=largest mass of meteorite, 37 tons,found in 1969.
4. Cape York, Greenland=meteorite hit earth almost 10,000 years ago, largest piece of it weighed 30.1 tons.
5. Armanty=China=weighing 28.0 tons
The list goes on, but this is very interesting how much they weigh. Earth has a few meteorites that strike earth daily and there are a lot that burn up coming through the atmosphere.
The Barringer Meteorite Crater in Arizona is a gigantic hole in the middle of the desert. Its rim is smashed and jumbled boulders, some of them the size of small houses, rise 150 feet above the level of the surrounding plain The crater is almost a mile wide and 570 feet deep.
When Europeans discoverd the crater, the plain around it was covered with chunks of meteorite iron-over 30 tons of it scattered over an area 8 to 10 miles in diameter. Scientist believe the impact of this crater was 150 times stronger then the bombs that were used on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ancient blast displaced 175,000,000 tons of rock.
Here is a list of five heavy weights of the meteorites that hit earth and are visible to see.
1. Sihhote-alin, Russia=largest known meteorite in the world==weighed 70 tons.
2. Hoba, Namibia=second largest, found in Namibia, weighed over 60 tons.
3. Campo del Cielo= Argentina=largest mass of meteorite, 37 tons,found in 1969.
4. Cape York, Greenland=meteorite hit earth almost 10,000 years ago, largest piece of it weighed 30.1 tons.
5. Armanty=China=weighing 28.0 tons
The list goes on, but this is very interesting how much they weigh. Earth has a few meteorites that strike earth daily and there are a lot that burn up coming through the atmosphere.
