[meteorite-list] Meteor Lights Up Canada's West Coast

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 21 13:24:56 2005
Message-ID: <200503150127.j2F1RFD06236_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/03/13/959737-cp.html

Meteor lights up Canada's West Coast
Cnews (Canada)
March 13, 2005

VICTORIA (CP) - Hundreds of residents on Canada's West Coast witnessed
quite the spectacle on the weekend as they watched the sky light up
momentarily in hues of pink and yellow.

Experts agreed it likely was a meteorite that streaked across the sky
Saturday night around 7:40 p.m. Pacific standard time.

"It was sort of a greenish-blue and a fair size and trailing bits of
light and then it changed to a yellowish and then a reddish and then it
winked out," said Victoria-area resident Laurie Savoie, who lives on the
waterfront.

The light show was reportedly seen by hundreds of people on Vancouver
Island, in the Lower Mainland and as far away as Oregon, USA.

"There is no doubt that it was a very bright meteor," said Jeremy Tatum,
a retired University of Victoria professor.

"What I'm particularly interested to know is whether there was any noise
associated with it."

Tatum said Sunday he would like to interview anyone who witnessed the
event.

"Sometimes these things create a sonic boom which takes some time to
reach us and that can be detected by seismograph," he said.

Scientists then use the data from the arrival times of signals at
various seismograph stations across the province to track the meteorite
using sound.

The object apparently fizzled out after burning for one to two seconds,
said dozens of callers to a local Victoria radio station.

Meteors are visible when a chunk of space rock being pulled towards the
Earth is ignited through friction within the atmosphere.
Received on Mon 14 Mar 2005 08:27:14 PM PST