[meteorite-list] A Metallic Asteroid May Have Coincided With The Fall Of Rome

From: rochette <rochette_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:26 2004
Message-ID: <a05100300ba6bf0b5c6fc_at_[193.250.251.6]>

>http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/science/story/0,12450,889308,00.html
>
>A metallic asteroid may have coincided with the fall of Rome, says
>Duncan Steel
>
>The Guardian (United Kingdom)
>February 6, 2003
>
>......
>
>No matter what the trajectory of the asteroid entry, it would have
>been a phenomenal sight from Rome, and scarier still for those closer
>to ground zero.
......

dear list

  sorry to be asteroid skeptic again but this newspaper article goes
really beyond acceptable journalistic extrapolation.

The Sirente "crater" lies about 60 km E of Roma and they are various
moutain ridges up to 2500 m in between the two places. Roma is near
sea level and the first mountain range eastward is only 15 km away.
So if the trajectory was westward, no way that " it would have been a
phenomenal sight from Rome".

even if the trajectory was in sight, can fear trigger the fall of
Rome? These people were educated, they knew about comets and
eclipses, they were used to natural disasters, frequent floods and
earthquakes, volcanic eruption (remember Pompei!). A 100 m crater has
negligible climatic effect.

If the event was so phenomenal how come that there is no historical
record (again compare to Pompei)??? We are not talking about a remote
place in Homeric time.
All this scenario is mere nonsense in terms of history.

But the biggest trouble is that the Sirente "crater" lacks to fulfill
any of the criteria for asteroid impact, despite careful search by
Ormo et al: no evidence of shock or fused material, not a single
extraterrestrial crumb found (just Ni free "rust"), no real ejecta
layer (just a 10 m wide 1-2 m high rim of reworked soil and sediment,
which is quite small for a 100 m wide crater!), no geophysical
anomaly, no nothing, just a circular pond and a bunch of meter sized
depressions... A reasonable explanation for all these structures,
knowing that the place has been frequented for many centuries by
millions of cattle looking for water, rare in these calcareous
ranges, is that the shepherds simply dig them as a reservoir or wells.

-- 
Pierre

Received on Sun 09 Feb 2003 07:01:13 AM PST