[meteorite-list] solar eclipse and (unrelated) the K-T impactor

From: Tracy Latimer <tracyl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:32 2004
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.21.0206100802110.8645-100000_at_netra.lib.state.hi.us>

First off, there is a partial solar eclipse scheduled today. People in
the western half of the U.S. will be able to get the best view, up to 75%
coverage on the west coast, starting in the late afternoon. I would
welcome hearing about it from anyone who has a chance to observe it!

Secondly, one of my friends went on a rampage through the discount bin at
Borders yesterday and bought the Big Book of Dinosaur Questions, a
children's book that had more fascinating information than most erudite
adult books. Anyway, among the things he read were:
a. The Chixulub impactor came in at a shallow (20 degrees or
thereabouts) angle, which showered the western portion of North America
with debris and caused a MUCH bigger dieback than if the meteorite had
come in straight down, as is commonly portrayed. Kinda like having a
water fight with your friends; when you use your hand tospray water at
them by scooping it along the surface of the pool.
b. A drilling team in the Pacific Northwest thinks the may have recovered
a tiny fragment of the original impactor from sediments brought up from an
ocean floor core. First off, I had no idea pieces of the impactor bigger
than molecular size would remain, and second off, as a collector, HOW DO I
GET MY HANDS ON SOME OF THIS STUFF?!?!?This is WAY cool.

If anyone has more information, web links, comments, etc. I'd like to hear
about it. Thanks for letting me take up your bandwidth.

Tracy Latimer
Received on Mon 10 Jun 2002 02:16:27 PM PDT