Description of The Crater
- Latitude/Longitude: 31°58′19″N 106°57′53″W / 31.97194°N 106.96472°W / 31.97194; -106.96472Coordinates: 31°58′19″N 106°57′53″W / 31.97194°N 106.96472°W / 31.97194; -106.96472
- Elevation: 4,239 feet (1,292 m)
- Crater diameter: 1.5x2.1 miles (2.4x3.4 km)
- Depth: 443 feet (135 m)
The hole is over a mile wide, and over 300 feet (91 m) deep, with crumbling basalt cliffs all around except at the southwest corner. The basalt cliffs resemble the cliffs of the Devils Postpile National Monument near Yosemite National Park, with the characteristic reddish purple hexagonal columns, except that they are not as tall. The cliffs are about 40 feet (12 m) high. Lava chunks exist in abundance. The basalt column fragments are each larger than a person.
Hunt's Hole is a little smaller, with basalt cliffs only at the northeast and southeast sides of the crater. Layers of ashfall and crumbling sediment also rise about 40 feet (12 m) high, on the south rim of the crater. This ashfall section on the south rim will not support a person's weight; it is safer to stay on the basalt cliffs and the sand dunes. Sand dunes have collected on the east sides of the both craters, rising about 100 feet (30 m) above the desert floor.
A dry lakebed lies on the floor of each crater.
Green peridot crystals occur in the lava.
Apollo astronauts trained in these craters in 1969.
Read more about this topic: Kilbourne Hole
Famous quotes containing the words description of the, description of, description and/or crater:
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“Give me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand!”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)