Arizona is perhaps most famous for the Grand Canyon, but is also home to the Hoover Dam ( on the border with Nevada ), the spectacular Monument Valley and the Sonoran Desert.
Did you know that Arizona also has a gigantic crater? The Barringer Crater ( also known as Meteor Crater ) was created instantly when a 50-meter (164-foot), 150,000-ton meteorite crashed into the desert around 50,000 years ago.
Find out more about the Barringer Crater
You can make your own craters and learn a little about how they form in this easy activity.
Make your own craters
You'll need
A shallow metal or plastic pan /tray
White flour
Hot chocolate powder
Marbles and different sized balls
Coloured sand can be used instead of flour and hot chocolate powder, you just need two different colours.
Making Craters
Fill the pan/tray about 2 cm deep with flour.
Lightly sprinkle the hot chocolate powder over the entire surface.
To make a crater, drop the marbles into the pan one by one. Carefully remove them to see the crater left behind. You'll notice the flour is brought up to the surface. The demonstrates how the layer of earth below the surface is exposed when a crater forms.
Investigate with different sizes and weights of balls to investigate how crater size and depth changes.
This post is part of my United States of Science series with a science experiment or investigation for each state of America!
Last Updated on April 20, 2021 by Emma Vanstone
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