[meteorite-list] Alabama Town To Drop Meteorite at New Year's Bash

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Dec 31 23:00:05 2005
Message-ID: <200601010358.k013wAN07074_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051230/APN/512300766&cachetime=3

Alabama town to drop meteorite at New Year's bash
The Associated Press
December 30, 2005

New York might drop a ball at Times Square on New Year's Eve, but an
Alabama city plans to ring in 2006 with a meteorite falling at the
county courthouse.

Playing off a cataclysmic event that occurred around 83 million B.C.,
organizers in the central Alabama town of Wetumpka have built a big
aluminum ball to symbolize a space rock that crashed into Elmore County
eons ago, leaving a crater that's still partially visible.

At 12 a.m. Sunday, the meteorite will slide down a wire attached to the
top of the courthouse flagpole.

If all goes as planned, the orb will strike a big ball used in past New
Year's celebrations in Wetumpka, located about 15 miles north of Montgomery.

"When the asteroid hits the big ball of lights, flares will go off and
all the other lights will go off at once and we'll have strobe lights
that make it look like waves going out," said Jack DeVenney, who's in
charge of the event.

The "astro-drop" is sure to be a hit: It's the only public New Year's
Eve celebration in three counties.

Geologists believe a huge meteorite traveling 20 miles per second
crashed into the Wetumpka area 80 million years ago, causing winds of
500 mph and leveling everything for hundreds of miles. Parts of a crater
three miles wide still exist.

The whole area was under as much as 100 feet of water as part of the
Gulf of Mexico when the rock slammed into Earth, Devenney said. That's
why the celebration includes lighting effects that are supposed to look
like waves.

Eric Curtis hasn't lived in Wetumpka very long, but DeVenney's plans for
New Year's captured his interest.

"I think it's great because they get to remember the history of the
town, and it's something unique to this town," said Curtis, formerly of
Tuscaloosa.

Devenney said the city "wanted to capitalize" on its prehistoric claim
to fame.

"Wetumpka has been getting international publicity on the asteroid that
hit here 83 million years ago," he said.

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Information from: Montgomery Advertiser,

Received on Sat 31 Dec 2005 10:58:10 PM PST