Some 49,000 years ago a large nickel-iron meteorite “just” 150 ft across, weighing several hundred thousand tons (~300,000) and traveling at a speed of 40,000 miles per hour, hit Earth. The result of this meteor lies 55 km east of Flagstaff, Arizona and is called the Barringer Crater: the best preserved impact crater ever. The force generated by the impact was equal to the explosion of 20 million tons of TNT. Picture that.
It measures 0.75 miles (1.2 km) across, is 575 ft (175 m) deep and has a rim 148 ft (45 m) higher than the surrounding plain. Discovered in 1902, the Barringer Crater was named after Daniel Barringer, a successful mining engineer. Today it is still owned by his family and is also known as Meteor Crater, Coon Butte, and Canyon Diablo.