Barringer Meteor Crater

Used a scan of a 1981 slide and a recent exposure of a "falling star", one of the Perseïdes

About 50,000 years ago, a rock fragment hit the earth in northern Arizona and created a crater with a diameter of 1,2 km. (tiny compared to the craters we see on the moon). The rock, composed of nickel and iron, was about 50 meters across and weighed 300,000 tons. It was travelling at 12.8 kilometers per second. Upon entering the earth’s atmosphere it became a giant fireball that streaked across the North American sky. When it crashed into the plains of Arizona, it exploded with a force of about 150 times the force of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.