[meteorite-list] Russian scientists unable to visit presumed meteorite site

From: John Sinclair <JSinclairJr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:06:56 2004
Message-ID: <000d01c26c1e$f0fb1280$38ca1a42_at_triad.rr.com>

04.10.2002 22:03:01
Russian scientists unable to visit presumed meteorite site
IRKUTSK, Russia. Oct 4 (Interfax) - Lack of money has so far prevented
Russian scientists to send an expedition to the presumed site of a meteorite
fall in Siberia on Thursday, a senior scientist said.

   "Specialists have no doubt that it is a meteorite that fell into the
taiga on Thursday," Vladimir Polyakov, academic secretary of the Institute
of Solar and Terrestrial Physics, told Interfax.

   Polyakov said there were more than 100 eyewitnesses and that scientists
trusted them. He said instruments rarely recorded meteorite falls and so
eyewitnesses were practically the only source of information on such events
for scientists.

   He cited hunters as saying the supposed meteorite had left a large crater
surrounded by burned forest.

   He said it was impossible to send a state-funded expedition to the site,
which lies in Bodaibo district, Irkutsk region, without approval from the
Meteorite Studies Center in Moscow. Irkutsk scientists had sent a report
there but had had no reply.

   One problem is that the presumed meteorite fell in a place difficult of
access, which only a helicopter can reach.

   Polyakov said scientists were fearing the meteorite was a lump of ice
that would melt away before an expedition came. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG SCI] as
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Received on Fri 04 Oct 2002 11:26:04 PM PDT