[meteorite-list] Cash Please For Russian Meteor Chasers

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:06:57 2004
Message-ID: <200210081747.KAA29508_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2309117.stm

Cash plea for Russian meteor chasers
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online
October 8, 2002

Scientists investigating what is believed to be a "significant" fresh meteor
crater in a remote part of Siberia are begging for funds to mount an
expedition.

A British meteorite expert has called on the international scientific
community to help Russian scientists get to the impact site, which may be of
major scientific importance.

Hunters in the region say they have seen a large crater surrounded by burned
forest.

According to Vladimir Polyakov, of the Institute of Solar and Terrestrial
Physics in Moscow, "Specialists have no doubt that it is a meteorite that
fell into the taiga on Thursday."

Middle-power Earthquake

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

Kirill Levi, vice-director of the Earth Crust Institute in Siberia, says, "the
seismic monitoring station located near the event site recorded the moment
of impact recording seismic waves comparable to a middle-power
earthquake."

Vladimir Polyakov says it is 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.

Bodaibo residents say they witnessed the fall of a very large, luminous body,
which looked like a huge boulder.

No funds

Scientists in Irkutsk scientists have sent a report to Moscow along with a
request for funds to mount an expedition but had had no reply.

According to Benny Peiser of Liverpool John Moores University:"we appear
to be dealing with a significant impact event."

He told BBC News Online, "It is imperative that US and UK funding bodies
to support our Russian colleagues in their investigation of the Siberian
impact.

"The resources required for sending a scientific expedition to the epicentre of
the event would be very moderate but could yield vital information about the
impact threat that concerns every citizen of the world."
Received on Tue 08 Oct 2002 01:47:26 PM PDT