[meteorite-list] Easton noting meteorite anniversary

From: Mike Jensen <*meteoriteplaya_at_meteoritecentral.com*> Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:13:20 -0600 Message-ID: <6f9da8300704231013v7f8ac8c3nfb9ecb66fb177_at_mail.gmail.com> · meteoriteplaya_at_meteoritecentral.com

--
Mike Jensen
Jensen Meteorites
16730 E Ada PL
Aurora, CO 80017-3137
303-337-4361
IMCA 4264
website: www.jensenmeteorites.com
On 4/23/07, Mike Groetz <mpg444 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> http://origin.connpost.com/localnews/ci_5724143
>
> Easton noting meteorite anniversary
>
> TONY SPINELLI tspinelli at ctpost.com
> Connecticut Post Online
> Article Launched:04/21/2007 11:13:04 PM EDT
>
> It's a 28-pound rock, colored gray and brown, the kind
> you might stumble across on a hike through an old New
> England quarry.
> But there's a lot of historical significance to the
> chunk of stone, which was plucked from an Easton field
> in this rural town and placed on permanent display at
> the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale
> University in New Haven.
>
> It is believed to be the first recorded meteorite to
> hit the United States. The find was so earth-shaking
> at the time that President Thomas Jefferson was
> skeptical.
>
> Members of the Easton Historical Society have been
> thinking about the stone a lot these days, because
> Dec. 14 will mark the 200th anniversary of when it
> blazed out of the northern sky in the pre-dawn hours
> and exploded over Easton. The historical society is
> planning a reception in honor of the anniversary for
> the fall. There will also be a visit to an
> observatory, said Lynne Geane, president of the
> society.
>
> "We are very excited about this," Geane said last
> week, before a visit to the museum to take another
> look at the stone and, perhaps, get permission to
> borrow it.
>
> The rock is on exhibit with a number of other
> meteorites, said Barbara Narenda, archivist of
> meteorites at the museum.
>
> It is called the "Weston Meteorite," because Easton
> was a part of Weston at the time.
>
> Technically, the meteorite is called a chondrite,
> meaning that it contains chondrules, microscopic to
> marble-sized spherical globs of silicates from the
> earliest solar nebula, sometimes pre-dating even
> planetary formation, according to the Web site
> novaspace.com.
>
> "It's not the first meteorite to hit the United
> States, but it is the first to be recorded," Narenda
> said.
>
> In 1807, when the meteorite struck, the local
> population was limited to a couple of hundred
> farmsteads separated by stone walls, streams, and
> woods, said Frank Pagliaro, a member of the research
> committee for the historical society.
>
> At the time, two professors from Yale, Benjamin
> Silliman and James L. Kingsley, immediately went to
> investigate. They found what they were looking for in
> a field. The rock they found 200 years ago is the one
> that remains on display.
>
> When Jefferson, who was president at the time, heard
> the story, he was skeptical. It is rumored he said, "I
> would more easily believe that two Yankee professors
> would lie than that stones would fall from heaven."
> Another story version of story has Jefferson saying
> the find was "all a lie." What is known is that
> Jefferson ordered a new investigation of the story,
> which supported the Yale professors' findings.
>
> While fewer than 10 softball-sized meteorites were
> found, Pagliaro said, it is possible that Easton's
> fields and woods contain more samples.
>
> "This spring, as you are turning over the soil in your
> garden or field, keep an eye out for rocks that look
> unlike any of those that make up Easton's many stone
> walls. These stony meteorites have a black, cracked
> surface like old leather and a granular interior,"
> Pagliaro wrote in a letter to society members.
>
> The meteorites are 17 to 20 percent iron, which
> oxidizes like an old gate and gives the rocks a rust
> color. The iron content also makes them heavier than
> they appear to be for their size.
>
> "Think of one in your hands as the weight of history,"
> he said.
>
> The streaking fireball was a light show to behold in
> the days before there were such things as electric
> lights. The metorite was seen speeding across the sky
> in Vermont and Massachusetts. Moments after it
> vanished over Easton, Pagliaro said the quiet morning
> air was shattered by several thunderous booms.
>
> Within seconds, the showers of stones fell from the
> sky over an area 10 miles long and four miles wide.
> The area of falling stones stretched from the Stepney
> area of Monroe to the southern part of Sport Hill Road
> in Easton.
>
> That's a lot of rock. And it's a unique claim to fame
> for a town that many people from out-of-town think of
> only as a place to buy farm-cut Christmas trees,
> festive wreaths and orchard apples.
>
> "We want to get the word out about this," Geane said.
> Tony Spinelli, who covers Monroe and Easton, can be
> reached at330-6361.
>
>
>
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