A 1951 article in Popular Astronomy suggested that this enigmatic depression might be a meteorite crater, and a report of a local Native American legend about “a ball of fire rushing from the sky” lent some support. The feature has even given its name (“Meteorite Crater”) to the USGS 7.5′ topographic quadrangle map. However, the feature is not mentioned in the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 99A on the geology of northern Nye County. The depression has been partly filled in with sediment, which could have concealed evidence of…
