[meteorite-list] NP Article, 11-1950 Nininger, Meteor Crater Hunt Futile

From: Steve Schoner <steve_schoner_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:40 2004
Message-ID: <20030514142311.2305.qmail_at_web12701.mail.yahoo.com>

Mark, and all,

This is a crucial article countering the mining claims
of Meteor Crater Enterprises, a fact that their guides
miss.

In 1950, after years of research finding metallic
sphereoids, Nininger proved the equations of Dr.
Moulton who predicted that a large impactor would not
survive the heat generated on impact. Dr. Shoemaker,
later in the early 1960's with his dissertation on
Meteor Crater geology laid out the mechanics of larger
impactors, and further proved that such impactors in
the case of large meteoroids explode in a cloud of
vapor on impact.

All of this in contrast to what Meteor Crater guides
still say:

"The meteor is under the southern rim, for when a
drill was sent under it, it stopped when hitting a
large (metallic) mass."

Got to justify the mining claim, I guess...

Disregarding, Dr. Moulton's theory of impact; Dr.
Nininger's discovery of metallic sphereoids and his
theory based on that that the meteorite exploded into
a cloud of vapor; and lastly Dr. Shoemaker's PhD.
dissertation laying out the exact process in which
this occurred, Meteor Crater Enterprises still promts
their guides to promulgate the idea that the meteoroid
is under the southern rim.

I have heard this mentioned by their guides, each and
every time I have gone there.

(You will never hear MCE give credit to Dr. Nininger
[to them a thief]who spent years of study at Meteor
Crater and pretty much proved that the meteoroid that
make it vaporized on impact... Remember those neat
little cards with a scattering of metallic sphereoids,
that he produced in the 1950's to show that the
meteoroid vaporized on impact?)

Steve Schoner

http://www.geocities.com/american_meteorite_survey

http://www.geocities.com/meteorite_identification


--- MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_msn.com> wrote:
> Title: Reno Gazette
> City: Reno, Nevada
> Date: Thursday, November 16, 1950
> Page: 25
>
> Meteorite Hunt Said Futile
>
> WINSLOW, Ariz., (AP) - Search for the giant
> meteorite that fell in northern Arizona 20,000 to
> 50,000 years ago can be abandoned, Dr. H. H.
> Nininger, noted authority on meteorites, believes.
> The scientist, who owns the meteor crater museum
> near here, said no huge meteorite exists. He
> beleives it exploded after striking the ground
> leaving no single mass of material.
> For years scientists have been walking around, over
> and in the crater looking for the meteor, and, he
> said, all the while they were actually "walking on
> it" in the form of metallic dust scattered over the
> area. His finding is based on a study of the minute
> meteoric fragments found in and for 100 miles around
> the 4,150-foot crater.
> "These little fragments, some of them only fine
> dust, are spherical," he said. "This indicates they
> condensed from vapor - which in turn would indicate
> the meteorite exploded creating the crater."
> Dr. Nininger said the mass that struck the earth
> undoubtedly weighed several thousand tons, but he
> discounted previous beliefs it may have been nearly
> a mile in diameter. His estimate is closer to 150
> feet.
> A recently translated paper on a meteor that fell in
> Siberia in 1947 indicates the same thing happened
> there, Dr. Nininger said, and added any meteorite
> more than 10 feet in diameter would probably
> exploded upon striking the earth.
> Meteor crater is a major tourist attraction in
> northern Arizona.
>
>
> Please visit, www.MeteoriteArticles.com, a free
> on-line archive of meteor and meteorite articles.
>


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Received on Wed 14 May 2003 10:23:11 AM PDT