[meteorite-list] Suspected Meteorite Falls in Cambodia

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jan 26 10:58:53 2005
Message-ID: <200501261557.HAA01555_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/26/content_2511399.htm

Suspected meteorite hits Cambodia
China View
January 26, 2005

    PHNOM PENH, Jan. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- A rock weight of about 4.5 kg
fell into rice fields on Monday morning in Cambodia's border province
Banteay Meanchey causing a fire across paddy fields, local media
reported on Wednesday.

    A hole of 30 cm depth was left by the little bit black-colored rock
which local people suspected as a meteorite. And the picture of the rock
was published at the front pages of local newspapers Wednesday.

    According to police chief Sok Sareth, the rock was handed over to
police waiting examination by experts.

    The rock was discovered by the villagers on early Monday morning at
about seven o'clock when they heard a tremendous noise like a bomb
exploding.

    Banteay Meanchey province locates more than 300 km northwest ofthe
capital Phnom Penh.

    No people was hurt. "It was lucky that it did not land in the
village or people could have been killed," Sok Sareth was quoted as
saying.

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http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1652621,00.html

Meteor narrowly misses village
news24.com (South Africa)
January 26, 2005

Phnom Penh - A 4.5kg suspected meteorite has landed in rice fields in
northwestern Cambodia, narrowly avoiding a nearby village, police said
on Wednesday.

"The rock fell on a harvested rice field from the sky on Monday
morning," said Sok Sareth, police chief of Banteay Meanchey province,
which borders Thailand.

"According to the villagers who live nearby, it came very quickly from
the sky and made a noise like a bomb exploding. It dug about 40
centimetres into the ground," he said.

"The rock is a little bit black and was hot, and looks strange compared
to other rocks... It was lucky that it did not land in the village or
people could have been killed," he said, adding experts would examine
the rock.

Pictures of the lump were splashed across the front pages of local
newspapers on Wednesday.

Sok Sareth said some villagers reportedly wanted to turn it into a shrine.

"Nobody has asked for it yet, but I have been told some villagers said
that they want to put it on a shrine to pray to it, but we won't allow
them to do that. It's useless," he said.

Cambodians, particularly in rural areas, are typically superstitious.

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http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=660805

Meteorite sparks fires and prayers in Cambodia
Reuters
January 26, 2005

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A 4.5 kg (10 lb) meteorite which landed in a
former Khmer Rouge zone of northwest Cambodia has started fires across
rice fields and prayers from villagers who saw it as a divine omen of peace.

"Some farmers are angry with the rock because it caused fires and
destroyed several hundred hectares of their paddy fields," said Sok
Sareth, police chief of Banteay Meanchey province, around 200 miles
northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.

"But others asked the police to leave it where it landed and put it on
shrine to pray for peace," he told Reuters on Wednesday.

The black lump of celestial rock sent villagers scurrying for cover when
it thumped into the ground in the war-scarred southeast Asian nation on
Monday morning.

"It made a noise like a bomb exploding," Sok Sareth said. "It's a good
thing it didn't land in the village or people could have been killed."

Pictures of the meteorite were splashed across newspapers in the
capital, but the item itself has been carried away by police pending
scientific analysis.

Initial investigations by explosives experts still clearing the bombs
and mines left behind from Cambodia's years of civil war against Pol
Pot's guerrillas have not yielded many results.

"I asked my friend who works as deminer, but he has no idea what the
rock is," Sok Sareth said.
Received on Wed 26 Jan 2005 10:57:26 AM PST