Meteor Crater, Arizona

Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona, was the first impact crater to be recognized as such. In 1957, a young graduate student named Eugene Shoemaker (later of Comet Shoemaker-Levy fame) convinced scientists that the iron fragments, a layer of broken rocks, and melted globs of soil were caused by a meteorite, not a volcano. Photo courtesy of John S. Shelton.

 

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