[meteorite-list] re: Vitim event

From: Pekka Savolainen <pekka.savolainen_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:08 2004
Message-ID: <3F22EB71.3080200_at_dlc.fi>

Hello, Marco and the list,

to me there is nothing very special in these pics. The first one looks to
me just as an area after a forest-fire. In Tunguska nearly all trees were
fallen to the same direction, these are just burned trees.

In another pic the fallen trees can be seen, it looks as an ordinary storm-
damage. This kind of small openings in the woods are quite common
also in Finland after the bigger storms. If the wood is different aged or
it has been logged recently, itīs very common, these small openings appears
in the borders of full-aged / logged or younger woods after storms.

Think there is no doubt, the bolide is real, have talked about it with some
locals in the city of Irkutsk. Donīt know personally nobody heard the
explosion, but itīs reported anyway.

take care,

pekka

Marco Langbroek wrote:

>In echo of Ron Baalke, I also remain sceptical with regard to the
>Vitim/Bodiabo "airburst" event. If you look at the pictures at
>http://www.neplaneta.ru/press_konf_aif.shtml , then some show a superficial
>resemblance to the well known Tunguska pictures; but on others, it would
>appear that the area of this tree damage is very localized and small, not at
>all continuous & of Tunguska character. And then there is the apparent hughe
>mismatch
>between the 2 Kt DOD energy estimate of the Vitim bolide (which appears to
>be a genuine bolide indeed, to avoid misunderstanding), which is comparable
>to the Tagish Lake bolide, and the energy release needed to cause the
>kind of damage claimed to be present. Also, I want to point out, that as I
>understood it from Andrei Olkhovatov's coverage of the news the past weeks
>on meteorobs mailing list, the organization Kosmopoisk researching the event
>(and organizing these news releases in the Russian press) might actually be
>somewhat pseudo-scientific, doing UFO research. Some of the elements in
>the story, like claims of elevated tritium levels, 'sharp increase in the
>radioactive background measured on the day of the event' (reported in the
>initial Kosmopoisk news message on June 12), strange long-lasting
>glows seen from a distance days after the event that were 'not aurora', and
>'strange bitter taste of water' make me highly suspicious, it is the kind of
>talk we usually hear associated with crop-circles, alledged UFO landing
>spots etc., and not the kind of thing you expect in association with genuine
>impact events (of whatever size). So far, I haven't seen any acknowledged
>impact expert speak out on the Vitim event (except for David Morrison, who
>was highly sceptical in NEO-news of 7 July) and untill that happens, I
>remain highly sceptical. I think this might very well be a well done news
>scam of the Loch Ness monster and a new sighting of Elvis type. If you strip
>the story to its bare details, you might end up with thinking of a genuine
>fireball apparition, a non-related forest fire, and a group of
>overenthousiast and not
>too knowlegable 'researchers' (you might for example have noted the not
>quite accurate statements on meteorites, although this can be due to a poor
>press recapitulation of the story) that want to see bizarre things in
>natural phenomena - and get good press coverage for their exciting stories.
>
>I think Andrei Olkhovatov's cautious suggestion on meteorobs to check high
>resolution satellite images whether the spots with forest damage really
>appeared on the date of the bolide, or were present earlier, or only later,
>is a very wise one.
>
>- Marco
>
>----------
>Marco Langbroek
>
>marco.langbroek_at_wanadoo.nl
>meteorites_at_dmsweb.org
>http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
>
>"What seest thou else
> In the dark backward and abysm of time?"
>
> William Shakespeare
> The Tempest act I scene 2
>----------
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Pekka Savolainen
Jokiharjuntie 4
FIN-71330 Rasala
FINLAND
+ 358 400 818 912
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Received on Sat 26 Jul 2003 04:58:25 PM PDT