[meteorite-list] Iranian Fireball Was Of Geophysical Origin

From: Michael Farmer <meteoritehunter_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:22 2004
Message-ID: <005801c3f1b7$c56e3870$0200a8c0_at_S0031628003>

The problem with Elma, is simple.
It was seen and reported by some kids that a fireball went over, and
somehow, they amazingly knew that it landed at their high school, then they
found some tiny little pits in the running track. They did not witness any
impact, but somehow knew where it was.
That alone makes Elma a pathetic waste of time. If the objects had impacted
right in front of them, then I would be more inclined to investigate.
Iran seems to have been a large incident that was witness by many people on
the spot, a little more beliveable.
Mike Farmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Viau" <cviau_at_beld.net>
To: "'Meteorite Mailing List'" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 2:53 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 05:30:07 PM PST