ODESSA CRATER

shallow, bowl-shaped pit in the high plains just south of Odessa, Texas, U.S., produced by a meteorite. It is about 17 feet (5 m) deep and 560 feet (170 m) in diameter; its rim rises only 23 feet (less than a metre) above the surrounding area. In 1939 nearly 1,500 iron meteorite fragments were collected from the ground around the crater and on its rim. The original crater bottom was determined to have been 90 feet (27 m) below the level of the surrounding land. The crater was discovered in 1921, and, because its rim has almost been eroded away, it is considered quite ancient. Three smaller impact-crater sites were found nearby in 1939.