Arizona 2014
After Coast to Coast I visited Arizona for a week during which time I visited Meteor Crater, the Petrified Forest National Park and Tombstone.
Meteor Crater
Imagine you were looking up at the skies above present-day northern Arizona about 50,000 years ago. You would have seen, albeit very briefly, a lump of nickel-iron measuring about 50m across coming towards you from at a speed of just over 12 km per second. In just a matter of milliseconds, you and most of said lump (now a meteorite) of nickel-iron would vaporise – along with everything else in your vicinity. What remained was a crater just under 1,200 m in diameter and 170 m deep. The energy at impact is estimated at 10 megatons TNT. For the layman that is a force equivalent to approximately 666 Hiroshima bombs.
Meteor Crater Rim / Winslow (AZ) - USA
Petrified Forest
The Petrified Forest National Park, situated in northeastern Arizona, is known for its large deposits of petrified wood. Petrified wood is a special type of fossilised wood where the organic matter of the tree has been replaced by stone via a mineralization process. It is special because petrified wood provides a three-dimensional representation of the original organic material. Petrifaction occurs underground when the wood is buried in water or volcanic ash which reduces the availability of oxygen and thereby helping inhibit decomposition. When mineral-laden water flows through the organic matter it deposits minerals within the cells of said matter.
Petrified Tree / Petrified Forest National Park (AZ) - USA
Tombstone
Tombstone, a city in southern Arizona, was officially founded in 1879 after the discovery of significant deposits of silver ore in the surrounding area. From a population of 100 the city grew to around 14,000 within a few years. Estimates vary as to the total value of the silver extracted but it is thought that circa 1,000 tons was mined between 1879 and 1886 when most operations ceased because of flooding. By 1890 there were fewer than 1,900 residents remaining. The city is most famous for the gunfight at the O.K. Corral between lawmen and outlaws on 26th October 1881. About thirty shots fired in as many seconds. In less than a minute three of the outlaws were dead. Though synonymous with the corral the gunfight took place in a narrow lot six doors west of it.
Stage @ Bird Cage / Tombstone (AZ) - USA