[meteorite-list] Iranian Fireball Was Of Geophysical Origin

From: Adam Hupe <adamhupe_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:22 2004
Message-ID: <01fc01c3f1b3$e44d0a40$7fc21018_at_attbi.com>

Dear Charles, Rosemary and List,

Dr. Andrei Ol'khovatov from Moscow, Russia weighed in on the Elma incident
and came to the same conclusion, a geometeorite was to blame. It is amazing
how similar the two events are. The kid with the burnt fingers in Elma and
a kid with a burnt face in Iran. Three laboratories weighed in on the Elma
incident. Two believe it to be a geophysical event and one believes there
is a more earthly explanation. To me it is an unsolved mystery. I stopped
commenting in public because there is no way to prove what happened either
way and it was causing some grief with a few List members.

All the best,

Adam Hupe
The Hupe Collection
IMCA 2185


----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Viau" <cviau_at_beld.net>
To: "'Meteorite Mailing List'" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 1:53 PM
Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] Iranian Fireball Was Of Geophysical Origin


> It very well could be related, and why it was so important to properly
> document the Elma incident, even though all of the 'experts' gave the
> principal investigators such grief. This is what science is all about. I
> would hope that there are some geo-physicists out there that will want
> to pull some of this material together from those 3 sources and look for
> similarities. The people who witnessed such events were not stupid, nor
> were they having any hallucinations.
>
> CharlyV
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: meteorite-list-admin_at_meteoritecentral.com
> [mailto:meteorite-list-admin_at_meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Rosemary
> Hackney
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 2:12 PM
> To: Ron Baalke; Meteorite Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Iranian Fireball Was Of Geophysical Origin
>
> Is this similar to the Elma incident? Elma intrigues me. It looks like
> sand
> or particulate material having been fused. Perhaps was sucked up by a
> dust
> devil or other storm wind and electrical discharge in the atmosphere
> fused
> it like glass? Anyway.. is this Iranian material considered a
> geometeorite
> also?
>
> Rosie
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 11:38 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Iranian Fireball Was Of Geophysical Origin
>
>
> >
> >
> > 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.
> >
> >
> > ______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
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Received on Thu 12 Feb 2004 05:02:21 PM PST