[meteorite-list] NP Article, Nov. 1930 Meteor Swarm and Meteor Crater

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:51 2004
Message-ID: <BAY4-DAV104KOYGNwDa00008eb0_at_hotmail.com>

Title: The Helena Independent
City: Helena, Montana
Date: Sunday, November 31, 1930
Page: 16


SWARM OF SMALL METEORS AS CAUSE OF VAST CRATER

     Instead of one huge meteor, as hertofore supposed, a swarm of smaller
meteors representing 300,000 tons of iron and stone was responsible for
producing the famous meteor crater, nearly a mile in diameter, near Winslow,
Ariz., according to a new theory of Dr. Forest R. Moulton. Dr. Moulton
presented his hypothesis at the recent meeting of the American Astronomical
Society at Chicago.
     The general belief has been that the crater was formed by the impact of
a single meteoric mass weighing perhaps 10,000,000 tons or more.
Astronomers, acting on this belief, have attempted, without success, to
locate the mass beneath the crater.
     According to the Moulton theory, what was originally a single meteor
broke up with explosive violence as it neared the earth. It struck the
groundin the form of a ball of small meteors with a combined power
equivalent to 400,000,000 tons of nitroglycerin.
     Dr. Moulton said that a small meteor, or meteorite, weighing a pound or
so, enters the earth's atmosphere at its intitial speed of around ten miles
a second. It tends to slow up as the atmospheric resistance increases and
becomes greater than the gravitational attraction. During its slower travel
the meteor, furiously radiating away light and heat, burns up and becomes an
ordinary "shooting star" by the time it reaches the earth.
     A large meteor of the Arizona type, however, would burn relatively less
slowly, but the terrific resistance of the air tend to explode it into
fragments.
Received on Wed 26 Mar 2003 11:25:47 PM PST