[meteorite-list] NPA 11-29-1941 Great Meteor (Crater) Is Challenge To Geophysits

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Dec 29 09:50:04 2004
Message-ID: <BAY4-F158FA431D385D66192848CB39B0_at_phx.gbl>

Paper: Reno Evening Gazette
City: Reno, Nevada
Date: Saturday, November 29, 1941
Page: 6

Great Meteor Is Challenge To Geophysists

     That great meteor that lies buried some twenty-three miles west of
Winslow, Ariz., is a challenge to Geophysics. That meteor is said to have
buried itself deep into the earth, making a crater three miles in
circumference. About $1,000,000 has been spent of drilling and mining
operations, endeavoring to locate the "sky wonderer." Mining operations have
been carried on to recover the mineral it contains. Excavation work has for
its goal a possible $500,000,000 deposit of valuable metals. The meteor fell
more than two thousand years ago and left a hole in the ground 4200 feet in
diameter. The crater now is six hundred feet deep and the main deposit of
meteorite material is believed to live seven hundred feet below the crater
floor, the Mining Record says.
     This crater has the appearance of having been made by a body at least
ten million tons. Fragments of meteoric iron have been found which are
reported a assaying ninety per cent iron and seven per cent nickel. A shaft
was sunk to a depth of sixteen hundred feet, but the main body of the
meteorite has not been encountered.
     The problem of locating this immense body of iron and nickel would seem
to be made to order for quick solution with one of the numerous geophysical
instruments that have solved problems of hidden ore all over the world. When
that meteor hit Mother Earth, it was probably at an angle, with the result
that the meteor is embedded in the ground some distance from the crater it
made. Our scientists should be able to give approximate figures as to the
momentum with which the meteor hit the earth and to what depth the meteor
would become imbedded in the character of the ground encountered, if it did
not burst into fragments. Part of it did, no doubt, because these fragments
can be found widely scattered near the crater. But, the crater is evidence
that the main meteor drove itself into the ground. If the mass is
nickel-iron, as shown by the fragments, it should be readily located with
the scientific instruments now available.
     A student of this subject has ventured the assertion that if the great
metallic mass is not too deep in the earth, he could locate its position
vertically by driving an auto equipped with a radio over the country; that
the strength of the radio wave and loss of volume over the metallic mass
might indicate its position. Evidently, the geophysical reports that have
been made in the past on the Arizona meteorite have proved of little value.
The scientists should not let the Arizona meteorite problem remain unsolved.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
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Received on Wed 29 Dec 2004 09:49:37 AM PST