[meteorite-list] Silverton Said to be Ground Zero of 1981 Fireball

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Mar 23 18:19:34 2005
Message-ID: <200503232318.j2NNIK620628_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.eastvalleynews.com/appeal/article.cfm?i=5247

Silverton said to be ground zero of '81 fireball
BY JEFF BREKAS
Silverton Appeal (Oregon)
March 23, 2005

When people from northern California to Seattle spotted a fireball
streaking through the night sky on March 12, the possible meteor
sighting was reminiscent of Thursday, Dec. 3, 1981, when the Silverton
area was believed to be ground zero for such an event.

Dick Pugh, one of 600 members worldwide of the Metrological Society back
in 1981, told Appeal-Tribune editor Bob Smith the 10:20 p.m. meteorite
was somewhere on the ground between Silverton, Stayton and Salem.

He had reports of the fireball being seen in Portland, Hood River and
The Dalles, and a sonic boom was heard in Estacada, Molalla and
Silverton. He said the noise was loudest in Silverton.

Through the newspaper Pugh was urging Silverton area residents to check
their yards and fields for any new holes, look at their roofs for fresh
punctures, and to even peruse the gutters of their houses.

Pugh said when people saw the fireball the meteor was probably 10 to 20
miles in altitude. At any lower level the atmosphere would have slowed
the object enough that light would not have been produced, he explained.

Pugh was not concerned with conflicting eyewitness reports of the
fireball either traveling north to south, west to east, east to west or
south to north.

"The thing was coming down at a very steep angle and, depending where
you were when you saw it, the direction could vary," he told Smith. He
stated the varying reports were from Silverton residents indicating the
city was 'at the head" of the fireball and directly in the path.

Larry Hallford and the late George Holland, both Silverton police
officers, were among the witnesses.

Hallford was driving on Silverton Road east of Little Pudding River
bridge from his home in Salem. He heard no sound but he described to
Pugh a fireball brighter than a full moon, with a few fragments falling
off.

Holland was driving on Old Mount Angel Highway at Abiqua River bridge
near his residence. He also stated he heard no sound, and told Pugh the
object was heading south to north.

Silverton resident Leigh Springer, a driver on Silverton Road at Lardon
Road, told Pugh the fireball was not moving fast, but lit up the
countryside.

Mark H. Forster of Hazelnut Ridge Road said he had to lean forward to
watch the silent event as he was driving west on Highway 213, 1 mile
north of Silverton. He also described the object as the size of a full
moon, but brighter. Forster said the meteor was moving at high speed, at
a shallow angle.

Pugh told Smith the fact that three people, all west and north of
Silverton, did not hear anything, was significant in tracing the meteor.

"Those directly in its path probably wouldn't hear anything because of
the 'cone of silence' directly under something traveling at or above the
speed of sound. Only those on either side hear anything," he said.

Pugh calculated the chances of finding the meteorite, ranging in size
from a BB to a basketball, were only one in 10,000. If found, the
meteorite would be black, or black with a rusty brown coating, he
explained. He said he had not had success in communicating with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but stated the chances of
the fireball being a piece of satellite were remote.

The plow had found more meteorites than any other scientific instrument,
and more farmers and ranchers had found them than all scientists put
together, said Pugh. He said 85 to 90 percent of meteorites that had
reached earth were stone, some capable of being crumbled by hand. He
said the rest were iron.

The meteor viewed above Silverton was the first viewed as a fireball in
Oregon in recorded history, and if found, would be the fifth discovered
in Oregon dating back to 1856, he said.

"This is the first time something like this has happened here since July
1939 when the Washougal meteorite exploded over Portland," Pugh told
Smith. He said the tennis ball-size rock was discovered at the bottom of
a small crater in a raspberry patch where a tree limb had been severed.

"That was in July when the ground was hard," Pugh said. "This time the
ground was wet and it could be buried four feet or more. It could be on
the surface too...."

Reports on the first meteorite discovered in 1856 are sketchy. Found
near Port Orford, the meteorite reportedly weighed 10 to 20 tons. The
finder chipped off a piece weighing about 1 ounce, but nobody ever
relocated the main mass.

During 1898 the largest piece of the Sam's Valley Meteorite weighing 16
pounds was found north of Medford. Reportedly, the meteor broke up into
three pieces.

The famed 15-ton Willamette Meteorite, the largest meteorite found in
the United States, was found and claimed in 1902 by Ellis Hughes on the
property of Oregon Iron and Steel Co. outside Oregon City. Native
Americans had used the meteorite in ceremonies. The Hughes family
charged 25 cents for members of the public to view the find before the
Oregon Supreme Court ruled the company had rights to the meteorite.

The rock was shown at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition and Oriental
Fair in Portland. In 1906 the meteorite was sold to the Museum of
Natural History in New York City where the curiosity remains on display.

Weighing 37 pounds, the fourth meteorite was found during 1952 in the
Cascade Mountain Range west of Klamath Falls.

News reports state the March 12 meteorite likely broke up above the
Pacific Ocean.
Received on Wed 23 Mar 2005 06:18:19 PM PST