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Meteor impact crater - Arizona (USA)

auteur: ESA/Novapix

référence: t-cra01-00017

Image Size 300 DPI: 21 * 21 cm

The Meteor Crater, also known as the Barringer Meteorite Crater seen from Sentinel-2 satellite. Around 50 000 years ago, an iron-nickel meteorite, estimated to be 30-50 m wide, smashed into North America and left a massive hole in what is today known as Arizona. The violent impact created a bowl-shaped hole of over 1200 m across and 180 m deep in what was once a flat, rocky plain. The wide perspective of this image shows the crater in context with the surrounding area. The impact occurred during the last ice age, when the plain around it was covered with a forest where mammoths and giant sloths grazed. Over time, the climate changed and dried. The desert that we see today has helped preserve the crater by limiting its erosion, which makes it an excellent place to learn about the process of impact cratering.

Keywords for this photo:

2024 - ARIZONA - CRATER - EARTH - EARTH FROM SPACE - IMPACT - IMPACT CRATER - METEOR CRATER - SENTINEL - SENTINEL-2 - USA -