Meteor Crater is a rimmed, bowl-shaped feature that lies in the desert of northern Arizona. The crater measures 1,200 meters (m) in diameter, with the crater floor lying 180 m beneath the rim. The rim rises about 60 m above the surrounding desert. In the early twentieth century, most scientists theorized that the crater formed as a result of volcanic activity (volcanism theory). However, Daniel Barringer proposed that a powerful meteor impact formed the crater (impact theory).
