[meteorite-list] Iranian Fireball Was Of Geophysical Origin

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:21 2004
Message-ID: <200402121738.JAA26471_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.nojum.net/news/newse.asp?newsid=34

PRESS-RELEASE: Feb 8, 2004
CONTACTS: Mr. Pouria Nazemi,
Tel: +98 (021) 827 0029
E mail : news_at_nojum.net

INTERNATIONAL GROUP OF EXPERTS COMES TO CONCLUSION THAT THE FIREBALL
FALLEN ON THE IRANIAN TOWN OF BABOL ON JANUARY 2, 2004 WAS NOT A METEORITE,
BUT WAS OF GEOPHYSICAL ORIGIN

On January 2, 2004 a report appeared about a meteorite fall on the town
of Babol, Iran. A group of Iranian experts associated with Nojum (Astronomy)
magazine began to investigate. The group consisted of Mr. Pouria Nazemi, who
has a large expertise in seeking scientific news and contacted many
organizations to collect more information and also a science journalist
(Mathematics BSc.), Miss Mohaddesseh Azimlu who was looking for physical
explanation for such events since the previous one in some months ago
(Physics Ms.)

Mr. Iman Naderi, a serious amateur astronomer who didn't miss a moment to
reach the place and make early report and photos, Mr. Siavash Safarianpour
who organizes a daily live TV program in popular astronomy and Mr. Oshin
Zakarian, a nature and night sky photographer.

Witnesses reported that the event started with seismic, and sound phenomena,
which were followed by unordinary light inside house and explosion with a
loud sound and ended by falling of a fireball which threw out sparks and was
described as a " suspended lightning "about 2 meters in diameter and
disappeared spontaneously. The boy who came out first and saw the ball had
burnt his face, but nobody else was hurt.

Despite that the investigation continues, already now it is possible to
state that the event had nothing to do with a fall of an extraterrestrial
body, and evidently was of geophysical origin.

Investigation of damage in the town caused by the event reveals that a
house, which was in the epicenter of the explosion, was badly damaged by the
explosion, and many houses within several hundred meters from it have some
minor damage. No traces of meteorite or any other object fallen were
discovered. The damage of the house partly was as caused by some energy
source inside the house, while possibility of a gas explosion etc. can be
excluded.

After coming to conclusion that the event was caused neither by a
meteorite, nor by any known made object, the Iranian experts contacted
Dr. Andrei Ol'khovatov from Moscow, Russia.

He has a special web-page ( http://olkhov.narod.ru/gr1997.htm ) , devoted to
similar unexplained fireball falls, which have nothing to do with meteorite
falls, but are of geophysical origin. Dr. Ol'khovatov prefers to call them
geophysical meteors or just geometeors. According to him, these events are
poorly known, and little plausible physical mechanism was proposed for them
yet, but observational data points that geometeors in many aspects resemble
an energetic high-speed "ball-lightning". Anyway, a statistical analysis
conducted by Dr. Ol'khovatov revealed that geometeors have a tendency to
occur in some special geophysical situations.

So Dr. Ol'khovatov has joined the group of Iranian researchers in
investigation of the Babol event. One of the tasks was to check whether
geophysical situation of the Babol event was favorable for geometeors,
especially in an aspect of cloudiness development in the region. It was
checked through satellite meteorological diagrams and however it didn't show
any cloud in the region, but starting changes in weather condition.

The Babol fireball was neither the first nor the last one in Iran. Some
months ago Nojum received a report about observing a fire ball on May 23,
2003 in Marzanabad, in North of Iran. It was in a rainy evening and big
thunders occurred continuously. Witnesses saw a high speed fireball hit two
old big trees, broke them with a very loud sound and continued its way. The
electricity broke in village for a few hours.

On January 21, 2004 another fireball came to visit an Iranian village in
North West, near MeshkinShahr in Ardabil state. It was again a stormy night
that a white fireball, bigger than full moon appeared in the sky and after
few minutes disappeared. Simultaneously electricity broke in the whole area
for several hours and a house was damaged. A part of roof covering was
disappeared and a wall and door was broken with a loud sound.

As both these two events have happened in stormy weather with thunders and
lightning, investigators come to conclude that they should be ordinary "ball
lightnings" that may be produced in such conditions. During natural
lightning a part of air molecules become ionized (which is called plasma)
and shine as a flash in a moment and come back to ordinary state (we saw it
as the path of lightning); but in rarely conditions that we still don't know
completely this plasma is caught in a ball shape and if hits anything may
release a lot of energy like a lightning with same loud sound and
destruction. We know very little about natural ball lightnings, but can make
them artificially in very small size in laboratory.

Anyway, the investigation continues, as those events and specially that one
in Babol gives a rare possibility to get a lot of data about such poorly
known meteorological or geophysical phenomena.

Group members are also waiting for your reports about any similar
observations at news_at_nojum.net.
Received on Thu 12 Feb 2004 12:38:47 PM PST