[meteorite-list] Could A Meteorite or Comet Cause All The Fires of

From: Mark Langenfeld <mlangen_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Aug 23 14:24:27 2004
Message-ID: <200408231824.i7NIOPB9028532_at_mail0.mx.voyager.net>

Anyone who has researched the history of these fires knows how spurious
this theory likely is (at least as to the north woods blazes). There
were small slash fires burning throughout the north woods most of that
summer and early fall. The protracted drought and an intense weather
system with associated high winds combined to drive and coalesce the
individual fires into the conflagrations that swept Peshtigo and elsewhere.

More to the point for this group: is there any credible report on record
anywhere of a meteorite arrival igniting a significant fire (other than
from historic asteroid-scale impacts)? In contrast, a notable
(witnessed) Wisconsin fall -- at Colby -- arrived on the warm and humid
evening of July 4, 1917. The meteorite was so cold when recovered that
frost formed on it.

Mark

>
>
> http://www.cadillacnews.com/articles/2004/08/23/news/news02.txt
>
> Could a meteorite or comet cause all the fires of 1871?
> By Dale Killingbeck
> Cadillac News (Michigan)
> August 23, 2004
>
> CADILLAC - The skies around Sherman and the village of Clam Lake
> undoubtedly turned from blue to black.
>
> In Chicago, flames were racing through the city and in Peshtigo, Wis.,
> people were running for their lives. Flames from the woods near Manistee
> invaded the town on a quiet Sunday - and people fought for their homes.
>
> Within three days of the fires, thousands were homeless, hundreds from
> Chicago, Wisconsin and Michigan dead, and many pioneers faced the winter
> without a home or crops to eat.
>
> In the month of the Perseid Meteor shower, it is interesting to ponder -
> could a disintegrated comet be the cause of the fires?
>
> An Upper Peninsula systems design engineer thinks so, as does a former
> physicist with McDonnell Douglas Corp.
>
Received on Mon 23 Aug 2004 02:24:25 PM PDT