[meteorite-list] Viñales meteorite fall report

From: Mattias Bärmann <majbaermann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2019 01:28:12 +0100
Message-ID: <075ee2ba-4fd4-327e-86c5-8ae1ed048839_at_web.de>

Thank you, Mike, for your engagement and for this outstanding report.

Matthias


Am 23.02.2019 um 00:07 schrieb Michael Farmer via Meteorite-list:
>
>
> I just spent a week in Vi?ales.
>
> The stories about the fall are incredible.
>
> I?d like to share a few things regarding the fall.
>
>
> I speak fluent Spanish so getting the information was easy.
>
>
> One farmer was in his yard feeding chickens when he saw the bright
> flash for a couple of seconds he said brighter than the sun. Hard to
> see because the sun was also in the same direction.? It then he saw
> the smoke trail overhead expanding once it passed over. A couple
> minutes later the sonic booms and shockwave hit. he said it was like
> being punched. Then a minute or more after the shockwave hit, stones
> started falling all around him.
>
> He heard individual pieces screaming in making whistling sounds and
> hitting the ground. One hit his garden about 50 feet away.? Another
> landed in the pond about 100 feet away, making a large water splash.
> Another hit in the coffee plants behind his house. He said stones were
> falling for over a minute or two. Hitting at different times. They
> didn?t all come down at once.
>
> He and his family found 4 near his house. One he heard hit in thick
> brush and it hasn?t yet been found. One hit a yucca plant nearly
> Cutting the trunk in half. He found that stone 5 days later embedded
> in the soil at the base of the plant.
>
>
> His wife found another across the street of almost 1 kilogram. It was
> embedded in the soil and only the top surface was showing.
>
>
> One boy on a bicycle was riding home rapidly afraid from the
> explosions. He thought it was an American missile attack. A large 250
> gram meteorite slammed into the asphalt road in front of him nearly
> hitting him. He saw it bounce into the ditch and he jumped off the
> bike and grabbed it, rapidly throwing it down because the stone was
> painfully cold.
>
>
> Another stone landed on the patio of the guesthouse Where I stayed in
> downtown Vi?ales town.
>
> I spoke to three other people who saw stones hit the ground and picked
> the up instantly, all said same thing, that they had to drop them
> because they were so cold.
>
>
> One stone penetrated a house roof in Vi?ales and smashed a laptop
> computer. I have not located the stone or computer to confirm.
> Possible the police confiscated it. I have people working on it. I
> know of at least 15 houses hit. All stones taken by the government.
>
>
> I drove all over the Vi?ales Valley area, a massive area and no part
> was spared meteorites. They were everywhere. Heavily scattered and not
> well sorted.
>
> 10 gram stones fell a few feet from 2.5 kilogram stones. 50 gram, 500
> gram. All same place.
>
>
> Miles away in the town of La Majagua, thousands of small peas landed.
> Sadly few were collected. The area is dense jungle and forest. Some
> people reported picking up over 100 stones in a short time. Many
> thrown away or given to the government. People came from far away and
> took pieces. Miles up the road to the east is the El Salto lake. Many
> stones were found on the dam. It has been heavily searched and I spent
> a few hours there and didn?t find any. Some people reported going into
> the pine forest nearby and finding many small stones on the pine
> needles on the ground.
>
> Sadly a massive heavy rain came last week only a couple days before my
> arrival washing away the roads and making finds much more difficult.
> With limited time I didn?t make any finds.
>
>
> Most stones that landed in the soft farm soil penetrated in and
> vanished under the soil. Before the rain people could see the impact
> holes and locate the stone below. Now after the rain they are
> impossible to locate. Stones are still being found in grassy pastures
> and fields. But ticks are a problem. Within moments of entering the
> grass you will be covered in tiny ticks. I?m still looking for them.
>
>
> Stones are reported as falling in Pilotos village as well. This is due
> to the high winds that curved the strewn field sharply to the east.
> Doubtless millions of stones fell. The energy was 1.5 kiloton and the
> mass was 350~ tons. If 99 % vaporized there would still be 3 tons on
> the ground.
>
> The problem is that the main part of the strewn field with larger
> pieces is all jungle, mountains and dense tropical forest. Not much
> chance of many large ones being recovered, and the largest masses made
> it to the ocean.
>
>
> Hard to estimate what?s been recovered. I?d put it at 30-50 kilograms
> or more.
>
>
> I have a limited number of complete crusted stones from 10 grams up yo
> about 50 grams. I was able to decide what to purchase so I only took
> the best pieces. Money is severely limited in Cuba due to no access to
> American banking. Impossible to use any credit card or bank card. Cash
> is heavily taxed.?Changing is dollars incurs an instant 13% penalty tax!
>
> Michael Farmer
>
>
> If you want a gorgeous complete stone contact me rapidly.?There aren?t
> many of them. Mostly fragments.
>
>
>
>
> Sent from XFINITY Connect App
>
>
>
> Michael Farmer
>
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Received on Fri 22 Feb 2019 07:28:12 PM PST