[meteorite-list] NPA 05-08-1925 Meteorites and Kansas, Nininger

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Feb 19 10:25:47 2005
Message-ID: <BAY104-F3096F3EAF8527E0E3C11F3B36F0_at_phx.gbl>

Paper: The Mansfield News
City: Mansfield, Ohio
Date: Friday, May 8, 1925

NOT EVERY METEOR FEEL IT’S OBLIGED TO FALL IN KANSAS

     McPHERSON, Kan., May 8. - (AP) - Kansas has attained a reputation
beyond this planet as a landing field for stray meteorites, but that
reputation would not stand the test of science, declared Prof. H. H.
Nininger of McPherson college, past president of the Kansas Academy of
Science, in an address on the subject of meteorites.
     The belief that Kansas, center of the United States, exerts some
unexplained influence on the heavenly wanderers, is without foundation in
fact, the professor asserted. A chart of recorded meteorite falls discloses
that one-fifth of the significant finds in the world have been in Kansas,
and this has led, according to Professor Nininger , to the popular and
fallacious impression that this state is peculiarly attractive to
meteorites.
     Two explanations he offered for the apparent monopoly Kansas has
maintained: the character of the soil, and the interest aroused in the
science.
     "The finding of stony meteorites," Professor Nininger pointed out,
"which have not been seen to fall, may be considered among the rarest events
in the annals of meteoritics. In only two localities on this continent have
such finds occurred in numbers - western Kansas and the coastal plains of
Texas. In both of these regions the soil is comparatively free from
terrestrial rocks." This, he said, facilitated distinguishing meteoritic
stones from the earth.
     A series of witnessed falls of the now famous and iron and stone
meteorites also had kept scientific circles, the public and the press
interested in Kansas for long periods, he said, with the result that farmers
began to believe that the heavy stones with which they were weighing down
fences and roofs were in fact meteorites. Thus were the discoveries
multiplied.
     Scientists have never satisfactorily accounted for the concentration of
iron meteorites in large showers, Professor Nininger told his audience. One
theory is that such showers are remnants of disintegrating comets which have
"side-swiped" the earth. This, he said, may explain the huge crater in
northeast Arizona, devoid of volcanic rock and surrounded by traces of iron
meteoritic falls, which geologists believe marks the entrance into the earth
of a monster meteorite.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

http://stores.ebay.com/meteoritearticles

PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my
website), is available upon e-mail request.

The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.
Received on Sat 19 Feb 2005 10:24:44 AM PST