[meteorite-list] Meteorite Doubting Thomas

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 07:39:48 -0600
Message-ID: <00ff01c7fd1e$124d71e0$0a01a8c0_at_bellatrix>

Tracy-

I think proper skepticism is certainly in order.

Meteorites arrive cool because several minutes have ordinarily passed
since they were traveling fast enough to produce atmospheric heating.
But if they are several meters across, they can make it all the way to
the ground still moving at a hypersonic speed. Such a meteorite will
certainly be hot at impact, and will produce an impressive crater.

Things don't quite add up with this event, which makes it interesting. I
wouldn't expect a body large enough to crater, but small enough to
produce such a small crater, to be stony. The area of the crater is very
remote, but I would have expected an impressive fireball seen over a
vast distance. I'd think additional small craters would be likely. A bit
of seismic activity doesn't prove much, since anything that could
produce a crater this size would also produce seismics. But I haven't
heard that there were any infrasonics produced, as would be expected
from a large fireball. If this was a meteorite, especially a stony one,
the fall dynamics are going to be very interesting indeed.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "tracy latimer" <daistiho at hotmail.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; "tracy latimer"
<daistiho at hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 12:37 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Doubting Thomas



I have problems with the meteorite theory:
1. Meteorites, as this List knows, come in cold, not hot enough to make
the water in the crater "boiling", as several witnesses stated.
2. Meteorites usually travel a long distance from where the glowing
meteor is first seen. If the locals saw the bolide, chances are good
whatever they saw fell a long distance away, not close enough for them
to get there soon after it fell.
3. Speaking of rocks, by now, everyone in every little hamlet knows
that there are crazy people out there who pay big money for meteorites.
If there was a "shower of rocks" associated with the fall, how come none
of the other purported meteorites have been recovered?
4. I await the analysis of a real meteorite specialist, not a
geologist, not a vulcanologist, and not media speculation! No reputable
scientist from outside Peru has so far investigated the crater or seen
the alleged meteorite fragments.
5. The sickness associated with the crater is a likely red herring, and
unrelated to a real meteorite.

My 2 centavos.
Tracy Latimer
Received on Sat 22 Sep 2007 09:39:48 AM PDT