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.

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).

References

• Mindat.org
• NASA research note
• Learn About the Canyon Diablo Meteorite