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Re: El Paso Bolide update.

In a message dated 97-10-18 09:19:30 EDT, you write:

<< 
 Dr. Mark Boslough: of Sandia National Labs
 Thursday 16 Oct 1997  
 The other observations seems consistent with this estimate. A 20 ton stone
 would have .5 kt of explosive energy, so the diameter would be more like 2
 meters. I think this would be likely to drop stones.
 
 Dr. David Crawford: of Sandia National Labs:
 Friday 17 Oct 1997
 
 The explosion altitude was about 30 km.
  >>
---------------
So it's definite that it had a terminal burst? I haven't been able to hear
anyone describing concisely what they saw. It's hard to tell if the witnesses
are describing simply sonic booms that would be normally associated with a
low reaching fireball or an actual explosion. If it exploded and not simply
fragmented, I wouldn't expect too much in the way of finding meteorites from
this object. I'm reminded of a similar fireball event in Japan a year or two
ago where the only meteorites found so far were about the size of marbles. I
believe there was something like that happening over Arizona around
1912...and the meteorites found were like marbles in size? It doesn't seem
like it was an iron object...if it was, I'd expect it to reach lower in the
atmosphere before exploding.
George Zay
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