Science: Great Fall

Some hundreds or thousands of years before Christopher Columbus, a huge cluster of metallic meteorites—or a small comet—400 or 500 ft. in diameter and weighing millions of tons, entered the Earth's atmosphere over northeastern Canada, plunged southward in a flaming, thundering arc over the Dakotas and Colorado, no doubt scaring thousands of savages almost out of their wits. Coming to Earth in northern Arizona, the monstrous cluster plunged into the desert, converted underground water into steam, hurled huge gobs of earth and stone skyward to fall back into the crater. The main body of the meteorite plunged on underground, shattered the...