IT CAME FROM OUTERSPACE

The Odessa Meteor Crater, location of a catastrophic mash-up from space, offers an interpretive center full of science fact alongside a giant hole in the ground that may remind you of science fiction. The National Natural Landmark, considered one of the largest impact craters in the country, was ground zero for a shower of nickel-iron meteorites believed to have originated from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Among the thousands of small meteorites (called octahedrites) falling across a two mile wide area were several chunks of considerable size that, upon colliding with the Earth, blew a few holes in the ground including one five hundred feet wide and approximately a hundred feet deep. Although erosion has filled in much of the largest crater since impact (about 20,000 years ago), this National Natural Landmark provides an interpretive trail into the impact site while its visitor center displays recovered samples of the actual perpetrator. The principal meteorite mass, however, remains one hundred and sixty-four feet below the crater…perhaps waiting patiently for the mother ship to arrive and take it back home.