Daniel Moreau Barringer (1860 – 1929) was a
geologistFor other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth and terrestrial planets...
best known as the first person to prove the existence of a
meteoriteA meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
craterIn the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
on the Earth, the
Meteor CraterMeteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located approximately east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States...
in
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
. The site has been renamed the Barringer Crater in his honor, although this name might mainly be used by the scientific community.
Daniel Barringer, the son of
Daniel Moreau BarringerDaniel Moreau Barringer was a Whig U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1843 and 1849.Born near Concord, North Carolina, in 1806, Barringer attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Graduating in 1826, he went on to study law in Hillsborough and was admitted to the bar,...
and the nephew of
Rufus BarringerRufus Clay Barringer was a North Carolina lawyer, politician, and American Civil War brigadier general.-Early life:...
, graduated from
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges....
in 1879 at the age of 19, and in 1882 graduated from the
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
's School of Law.
Daniel Moreau Barringer (1860 – 1929) was a
geologistFor other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth and terrestrial planets...
best known as the first person to prove the existence of a
meteoriteA meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
craterIn the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
on the Earth, the
Meteor CraterMeteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located approximately east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States...
in
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
. The site has been renamed the Barringer Crater in his honor, although this name might mainly be used by the scientific community.
Daniel Barringer, the son of
Daniel Moreau BarringerDaniel Moreau Barringer was a Whig U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1843 and 1849.Born near Concord, North Carolina, in 1806, Barringer attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Graduating in 1826, he went on to study law in Hillsborough and was admitted to the bar,...
and the nephew of
Rufus BarringerRufus Clay Barringer was a North Carolina lawyer, politician, and American Civil War brigadier general.-Early life:...
, graduated from
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges....
in 1879 at the age of 19, and in 1882 graduated from the
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
's School of Law. He later studied
geologyGeology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed...
and
mineralogyMineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their...
at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
and at the
University of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, respectively.
In 1892, Barringer, along with his friend
Richard A. F. Penrose, Jr.R. A. F. Penrose, Jr. was an American mining geologist and entrepreneur.Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose, Jr., better known as R.A.F. Penrose throughout his career, graduated in 1885 with a Ph.D. from Harvard for work on phosphates...
, and others, purchased a
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
and
silverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
mineMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash...
near
Cochise, ArizonaCochise County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. The population was 117,755 at the 2000 census; it was estimated at 127,866 in 2007. The county seat is Bisbee.-History:...
. Later, Barringer also discovered the Commonwealth Silver Mine in
Pearce, ArizonaPearce, Arizona and Sunsites, Arizona are adjacent unincorporated communities in the Sulphur Springs Valley of Cochise County, Arizona, United States. The two communities are referred to as Pearce-Sunsites, Pearce/Sunsites, or Pearce Sunsites. Pearce is best known as a historic ghost town...
. These mining ventures made him a wealthy man.
Coon Mountain Crater
In 1902 Barringer learned of the existence of a large (1.5 km in diameter) crater, located 35 miles east of
Flagstaff, ArizonaFlagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In July 2006, the city's estimated population was 58,213. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was estimated at 127,450 in 2007. It is the county seat of Coconino County...
. The crater, known as Coon Mountain, had previously been studied by the geologist
Grove Karl GilbertGrove Karl Gilbert , known by the abbreviated name G. K. Gilbert in academic literature, was an American geologist....
in 1891. Gilbert had hypothesized that the crater must have been the result of either a gas explosion or a
meteoriteA meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
. After performing experiments in the crater, however, Gilbert conclusion was that the crater
could not be the result of an impact, and therefore could only be the result of an explosion. He concluded this despite the clear presence of thousands of small
meteoritic particles in the vicinity of the crater.
Upon hearing of the existence of the crater and the meteoritic iron, Barringer became convinced that the crater was of meteoritic origin. With both scientific and monetary aims in mind, Barringer created the "Standard Iron Company" in order to mine the crater for the iron that he assumed must be buried below its surface. The Standard Iron Company conducted drilling operations in and around the crater between 1903 and 1905, and concluded that the crater had indeed been caused by a violent impact. It was unable to find the meteorite, however.
In 1906, Barringer and his partner, the
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts...
and
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Benjamin C. TilghmanBenjamin Chew Tilghman was an US soldier and inventor. He is best known as the inventor of the process of sandblasting.- Early life :He was born in Philadelphia on October 26, 1821, the third child of Benjamin and Anne Marie...
, presented their first papers to the U.S. Geological Survey outlining the evidence in support of the impact theory. The papers were published in the
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
The mining of the crater continued until 1929 without ever finding the ten-million ton meteorite that Barringer assumed must be hidden. At this time the
astronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars, and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
Forest Ray MoultonForest Ray Moulton was an American astronomer.He was born in Le Roy, Michigan, and was educated at Albion College. After graduating in 1894 , he performed his graduate studies at the University of Chicago and gained a Ph.D. in 1899...
performed calculations on the energy expended by the meteorite on impact, and concluded that the meteorite had most likely vaporized when it landed. By this point Barringer had spent over $600,000 in mining the crater, nearly bankrupting him, with no iron profits to show for it.
Barringer died of a heart attack on November 30, 1929, shortly after reading the very persuasive arguments that no iron was to be found. By the time of his death, Barringer had convinced most of the scientific community that his impact theory was correct. The theory has been further confirmed with new evidence since then, most notably by Eugene Shoemaker during the 1960s.
Barringer also had
a small lunar craterBarringer is a lunar impact crater that is located on the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. It is attached to the north-northeastern rim of the walled basin named Apollo, and lies to the southeast of Plummer...
named after him posthumously on the far side of the
MoonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
. He was survived by his wife, Margaret Bennett, and eight children, who, together with their descendants, formed the
Barringer Crater Company, which owns the site to this day.