Canyon Diablo Iron Meteorites (6-8 Grams) - Arizona

About 30,000-40,000 years ago the giant Canyon Diablo meteor hit the dry Arizona desert at an incredible speed (48,280 kilometers per hour). The resulting blast created an impact crater 1,219 meters across and 213 meters deep. Most of the meteor was vaporized, but some fragments survived, the largest being 639 kg. The meteor itself is believed to have weighed approximately 30 metric tons.

Assays of the recovered meteorite fragments yielded about 7% nickel and 1/3 oz per ton platinum. In some specimens, tiny black diamonds called "carbonados" were discovered inside graphite/trolite nodules. These carbonados were probably formed by the shock wave of the meteor's collision with earth.

Iron type meteorites are often composed of iron and other metals, primarily nickel. These metallic meteorites are often the easiest to identify after millions of years post-impact, because they are quite different from the surrounding material, especially when it comes to their mass-to-surface area ratio. They are exceptionally heavy for their size as iron is one of the metals with a high density. Extraterrestrial iron and nickel are believed to be chunks of the cores of the planetary devastation that is now the asteroid belt.