[meteorite-list] Book Review: Meteorite Hunter - The Search for Siberian Meteorite Craters

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:54:02 2004
Message-ID: <200202081708.JAA12067_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.space.com/spacelibrary/books/library_gallant_020208.html

Book Review
space.com
February 8, 2002

Featured Book:

Meteorite Hunter: The Search for Siberian Meteorite Craters
by Roy A. Gallant

For the last ten years Prof. Roy A. Gallant has been digging around the
notoriously treacherous Siberian wastelands so (thankfully!) you and I don't
have to.

His mission: To uncover the mystery surrounding what's known today as the
Tunguska Event, the 1908 meteorite impact that was so great it exploded with
a force 2000 times the size of the Hiroshima blast, its shockwave circling
the earth twice.

But what was the object? A comet's nucleus? Or a stony asteroid? Braving the
region's natural predators (from bears to blood-thirsty bugs), Gallant,
using research never before seen outside Russia, attempts to find answers in
a book that is part history, part travelogue and part scientific inquiry.

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Q & A WITH THE AUTHOR

SPACE.com: What's more dangerous, Siberian mosquitoes or rocks from space?

Roy A. Gallant: I'll take the mosquitoes. At least you can hit back.

SPACE.com: Because the 1908 meteor exploded aboveground, little is known about the
object. What new insights can you give us? Was it a comet or an asteroid?

Roy A. Gallant: Not really any new insights into the cause of the event, more a matter of
accumulating evidence tending to support the notion that the exploding
object was a comet nucleus. This is the collective opinion of most Russian
investigators; although some say they cannot confidently rule out a stony
asteroid. Although computer modeling can be helpful, it is not a reliable
substitute for the types of field investigations I report in my book.

SPACE.com: Based on your research, what did the event look like to an observer standing
at a (barely) safe distance?

Roy A. Gallant: There was blinding light from the explosion--violent flash accompanied by an
extremelhy hot and violent wind, and there was a pressure wave strong enough
to knock people down. Add to that thunderous noise sounding like batteries
of artillery fire. Than the expansive forest burst into flame. Many close
to the blast were temporarily deafened, struck dumb and speechless, and fell
to the ground in a state of shock.

SPACE.com: What would happen if a similar event occurred over a metropolitan region?

Roy A. Gallant: If there had been a difference of one hour when the Tunguska object struck,
it would have exploded over St. Petersburg and killed about 500,000 people.

SPACE.com: Experts agree it's only a matter of time before a much larger object hits
the planet. How worried are you about the survival of civilization?

Roy A. Gallant: I'm not at all worried since there's nothing I or any one else can do to
prevent a planet-crunching asteroid a few kilometers in diameter from
largely destroying he civilized world. It's a numbers game. We simply have
no way of knowing when we'll be hit aain.You read a lot of numbers--certain
size asteroids striking Earth every 1000 or 50,000 or 500,000 years. If we
haven't been hit for a long time, does that mean we are likely to be hit
soon? Not necessarily. Any one versed in probability theory can tell you
that the past occurrence of the sum of seven turning up on the next dice
toss has nohing whatever to do with the number of times seven has shown up
in the previous 20 or so tosses.

SPACE.com: Who are your heroes and how have they influenced your work?

Roy A. Gallant: I have many heroes in science, among them Charles Darwin and others like him
who devoted a great part of their lives nurturing a old hypothesis and
watching it evolve into theory, and eventually gain the status of scientific
principle, all through theie tireless and methodical collection of evidence.
But sciencetends not to be donw that way any more. Just turn to the title
page of mose major articles in the journals NATURE and SCIENCE and see the
multiple by-lines, sometimes up to a dozen or so investigators. The new
technologies in biology and physics, for example, are making a rarity out of
the potential Darwins or a Copernicus.

SPACE.com: What most upsets you about science or scientists?

Roy A. Gallant: There's nothing about science as a means of investigating the natural
worldthat upsets me, even though a scientists' search for truth is bound to
step on toes every now and then. For the most part, I think scientists are a
pretty honest lot with well definedgoals. The scientists who do notfit that
pattern are those who have sold out to the tobacco, nuclear,and certain
other industries that try to convince us that their product or activity is
perfectly safe, when they know just the opposite is true.

SPACE.com: If you controlled a $1 billion foundation, what research effort would you
fund?

Roy A. Gallant: Since a billion dollars isn't all that much money these days, I'd look for a
relatively modest research effort, perhaps one directed more toward
education rather than expensive hardware that might teach us how to mine an
asteroid. In the field of astronomy, perhaps an effort to identify the
misconceptions young people hae about basic astronomy, space, space travel,
the nature and probability of life elsewhere in the universe and the
philosophical implicatioins of its discovery. The second, and major, part of
my program would be the preparation, publication, and distribution
ofeducational materials at the junior high and up levels. Such materials
would be relatively inexpensive, and their funds generated would go back
into the program to make it largely self-sustaining.

SPACE.com: Why should we spend money on space exploration over research into deadly
diseases?

Roy A. Gallant: I see no reason why we shouldn't be doing both at the same time.

SPACE.com: What is the most beautiful aspect to space?

Roy A. Gallant: Its silence and profoundly humbling aspect.

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PREVIEW

" ... The Russians? conquering hero of Siberia was Yermak Timofeevich,
leader of a band of warriors called Cossacks. The name comes from a Tartar
word meaning 'daredevil,' one who has shunned all ties with his social class
and becomes a free spirit as ready to fight as gulp down a measure of vodka.
The Cossacks came into their own in the 1500s when they avoided the Tartar
yoke of feudalism and serfdom by fleeing to the 'Wild Field' where,
according to Rasputin, 'They founded their own settlements, elected
chieftains called atamans, established laws, and began a free, new life that
was not subordinate to any khanate or czardom.' Nevertheless, to survive
they eventually came to serve the czar and tirelessly vented their patriotic
fervor by defending Russia against her perceived enemies, be they Turks or
Tartars. Their stronghold was the land forming the lower reaches of the Don
and Volga rivers. It was the Cossacks, under the leadership of Yermak, who
played an almost supernatural role in opening up Siberia. They were a proud
and ruthless lot of adventurers who let nothing stand in the way of their
pursuit of wealth. But there were others before them.

Who were the first Siberians, the mystery people who inhabited the forests
and plains east of the great Rock, or Ural Mountains? Foreigners in ancient
and medieval times reading Herodotus's History were told that 'at the foot
of some high mountains dwell people who are bald from birth and have flat
noses and oblong chins [and who] have goats' feet; and others living beyond
them sleep six months out of the year.' As late as the 1500s, one Russian
written source related old tales describing the Siberians as a people who
ostensibly die to pass the harsh winter months and do not reawaken until
spring.

Siberia, from a Tartar word meaning 'sleeping land,' is a giant only
slightly smaller than the United States. It extends eastward across northern
Asia from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. From west to east in the
north it borders first the Barents, then the Kara, then the Laptev, and
finally the East Siberian seas across the Arctic. It sprawls southward,
first across the tundra, then through the great north coniferous forest
biome called the taiga, and finally over the steppes of Central Asia to its
southern borders with Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China ..."

-- from the Preface, 'Meteorite Hunter'
Received on Fri 08 Feb 2002 12:08:37 PM PST