Canyon Diablo is the most famous (and most studied) iron meteorite in the world. It came to Earth 49,000 years ago in the form of a 50-meter-wide iron-nickel mass. It crashed into the Arizona desert with as much energy as a 40-megaton atomic bomb. The impact vaporized much of the asteroid and generated a powerful air blast that swept across the landscape at speeds exceeding 1000 kilometers per hour. A kilometer-wide depression, Meteor Crater, was created - deeper than the Washington Monument is tall and far greater than the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The earliest research on Canyon Diablo revealed the presence of tiny diamonds – the first to be discovered in meteorites. The iron meteorite is from chemical group IAB and has been modeled as having formed on a chondritic asteroid by impact melting. This is a superlative example of the quintessential American meteorite prized by museums and private collectors everywhere.


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