[meteorite-list] Teenager Meteorite Impacts

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:24 2004
Message-ID: <3D6DBDF1.2EB4D37B_at_bhil.com>

Hi, List,

    While the English Teenager Meteorite Impact certainly doesn't
seem to be anything but a news story, look up the Noblesville,
Indiana meteorite in the Catalog.
    A teenaged boy was standing in his front yard staring up at
the sky and a meteorite whirred over his head and went "plunk" in
the grass six feet in front of his toes. No crater, no fiery
trail, no explosion, no more fuss than if it had been another kid
tossing a rock over his house. But it was a true meteorite. Very
undramatic except for the fact that it was real.
    I am convinced that this story is responsible for a lot of
Teenager Meteorite Impact Stories, almost all of which sound very
much like the Noblesville meteorite. There was one in southern
Illinois a few years ago, same story. I finally tracked down the
university geologist they took the rock to. The rock was just
slag. (The story's in the MetList archives somewhere.) The story
is perfect folklore or maybe we should call it an urban myth.
    Or perhaps the scene is so much like the start of Steven
Spielberg movie that teenagers generate it spontaneously!


Sterling
Received on Thu 29 Aug 2002 02:23:45 AM PDT