The Canyon Diablo meteorite impacted at Barringer Crater, Arizona and is known from fragments collected around the crater and nearby Canyon Diablo which lies about 3 to 4 miles west of the crater. The meteorite is an iron octahedrite which fell between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago. The meteorite has been known and collected since the mid 1800s and was known and used by pre-historic Native Americans. The meteorite and the Barringer Crater were the center of the long disputed theories of origin through the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. For the crater on the Moon, see the Lunar Barringer crater The Barringer Crater, also known as the Meteor Crater, is a famous impact crater created by a meteorite, located about 55 kilometers east of Flagstaff in the northern Arizona desert (USA). ... State nickname: The Grand Canyon State, The Copper State Other U.S. States Capital Phoenix Largest city Phoenix Governor Janet Napolitano Official languages English Only State Area 295,254 km² (6th)  - Land 294,312 km²  - Water 942 km² (0. ... Worlds second largest Meteorite in Culiacan, Mexico A meteorite is a relatively small extra-terrestrial body that reaches the Earths surface. ... Octahedrites are a class of nickel iron meteorites. ... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ...

Minerals reported from the meteorite include:

• Cohenite - iron carbide
• Chromite - iron chromium oxide
• Daubreelite - iron(II) chromium sulfide
• Diamond and lonsdaleite - carbon
• Graphite - carbon
• Haxonite - iron nickel carbide
• Kamacite iron nickel alloy - the most common component.
• base metal sulfides
• Schreibersite - iron nickel phosphide
• Taenite iron nickel alloy
• Troilite iron sulfide

Clair Cameron Patterson, in 1953, used samples of the meteorite to measure the age of the Earth at 4,550 million years (+/- 70 million years). Chromite, iron magnesium chromium oxide: (Fe,Mg)Cr2O4, is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. ... A scattering of round-brilliant cut diamonds shows off the many reflecting facets. ... Lonsdaleite is a hexagonal polymorph of the carbon allotrope diamond, believed to form when meteoric graphite falls to Earth. ... Graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. ... Kamacite is a mineral. ... A base metal is a cheap or at least inexpensive metal. ... In chemistry, a sulfide (sulphide in British and Canadian English) is a combination of sulfur with an oxidation number of -2, with another chemical element or a radical thereof. ... Schreibersite is a rare iron nickel phosphide mineral, (Fe,Ni)3P, found in iron-nickel meteorites. ... Clair Cameron Patterson (1922 - 1995) was a geochemist born in Iowa, United States. ... The age of the Earth is estimated to be 4. ...

References

• Mindat.org (http://www.mindat.org/loc-3317.html)
• NASA research note (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news031.html)
• Learn About the Canyon Diablo Meteorite (http://www.alaska.net/~meteor/CDinfo.htm)