[meteorite-list] GRAND CANYON METEOR

From: Jennifer and Steve Ransdell <jems28_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:18 2004
Message-ID: <005b01c247db$3953d340$c2c5f80c_at_attbi.com>

To whom it may concern, and sorry for the lack of technical terminology:

On the evening of Wednesday, August 14, appx. 9:30-9:45pm Arizona time, my
son and I were on a nite "star" hike with an NPS ranger at Bright Angel
Point on Grand Canyon's North Rim. A huge meteor raced across much of the
sky, running south to north. It lasted as long as 6-8 seconds, was
bluish-white in color, and was extremely bright. The tail was very long, and
it was very "flare-like", as the "sparks" were very visible. We could also
make out the head of it. The 40 or so people in our group were completely in
awe, as was the park ranger. About 10 seconds after it disappeared, there
came a loud boom that eventually echoed down through the Canyon. I was
thinking that it was unlikely that it hit the Earth, and that the sound was
just a sonic boom, but hoping that it had made contact somewhere just north
of us. I have seen many "shooting stars", and many good ones, but this
completely blew everything else away.

I have been trying to find information on this occurrence on the web, but
have had no luck at all. I asked the following morning at the ranger's
office if they had heard if it landed anywhere. The ranger on duty saw it as
well, but they had not heard from the NFS, whose territory borders the
northern part of the park. They indicated that they would be notified,
especially if a forest fire resulted from it. A traveler came into the
ranger's office while we were speaking about this, and he said that he'd
been staying at a lodge just up the road about 20 miles, and saw it as well.
He said that they could see debris "fly up" when it landed. I asked at two
service stations north of the park, one directly across the road from the
lodge just metioned. The owner said she was awakened by it, but nothing
more. She also indicated that she would know about it, had it hit and caused
a fire. There is nothing on the NPS/Grand Canyon web site, and I tried
dozens of others, to no avail. I just sent an email to the NFS to see if
they have any info as well.

Does anybody: A. Have any information on this occurrence?
                           B. Have any suggestions on where I can/should
"report" this?

Thanks,
Stephen
Received on Mon 19 Aug 2002 07:50:39 PM PDT