[meteorite-list] 100 year old meteorite story from Sweden

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Sep 6 20:41:40 2005
Message-ID: <431E3718.5AB0CB98_at_bhil.com>

Hi,

    Thanks to Google, I was able to find
my own post, which otherwise would have
been like looking for a single sock lost years
ago at the bottom of the bedroom closet...

    I reproduce it here, from 10-24-03:

    Actually, there are a number of
sedimentary meteorites. It's just that
they are not acknowledged to be meteorites.
    If you have the CDROM of the Catalogue,
have the software assemble you a
list of "pseudometeorites" that are not irons.
    Or just search for BLECKENSTAD
(April 11, 1925) SWEDEN, a sedimentary
meteorite of white limestone complete with
fossil shells. It was reported on by Dr. Assar
Hadding of the Swedish Geological Institute
in 1939 who, after a long investigation, decided
it really was a meteorite. The chief reason for
so believing is that it is a WITNESSED FALL
and you really can't get much better than that.
However, he was widely regarded as whacky
by the wise men of 1939 and (equally wisely)
shut up about it for 20 years. Hadding was so
discouraged by the reception of his earlier paper
that, when he discovered another sedimentary
meteorite, he threw it away! Only much later,
in the 1950's, when he realized that they could
have been "Earthites," did he write about the two
stones again.
    Nininger himself found a small sedimentary
meteorite, on March 24, 1933, while searching
for fragments of Pasamonte. The stone in
question was a dirty grey limestone with
fragmentary shell bits fossilized in it and
sporting a black fusion crust. He ruled out
an artificial origin for the crust but was unwilling
to claim it was a meteorite, apparently not because
he didn't think it was a meteorite but because
it wasn't worth the noise...
    Frank Cross wrote about sedimentary
meteorites at length in the journal
"Popular Astronomy" (Vol. 55, 1947,
pp. 96-102), citing Trevlac (Indiana)
and Montrose (West Virginia), two
independently discovered sedimentary
meteorites with identical green glassy crusts.
    And so it goes...
    The whereabouts of most of the
sedimentary "pseudometeorites" is
unknown, not surprising considering
their reception, so the sophisticated
tests that could be performed today
are impossible. There's a kind of
self-reinforcing judgement at work
in that. Two guys from the French
Academy, flumping their powdered
wigs, explain, "Foolish peasant! Ze
sedimentary rocks from ze sky, zey
do not fall," so we throw the evidence in
the trash.
    Anybody on the List know what
happened to Nininger's sedimentary
find?

    Hope that helps.


Sterling K. Webb
--------------------------------------------
"Sterling K. Webb" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> You're probably referring to:
>
> BLECKENSTAD,
> Ostergotland, Sweden, April 11, 1925
>
> "A meteor was observed, leaving a trail
> of smoke. Stones are said to have
> fallen, and fragments of a white, porous
> limestone were picked up, differing from
> the local rocks. The possibly meteoritic
> nature of this material has been the subject
> of considerable discussion, N. Zenzen
> (1942, 1943); A. Hadding (1943); F.C. Cross
> (1947). Pseudometeorite, F.E. Wickman
> & A. Uddenberg-Anderson (1982)."
>
> If this is the stone I'm thinking of, Zenzen,
> who was head of the Sweden Geological Survey
> or Museum, or equivalent official and a prominent
> geologist, wrote extensively on it. The witness
> account is perfectly consistently with "the real
> thing" and the stone is fossilerous limestone.
> All that happened is that he ruined his
> reputation and lost his job. Sad. I posted a
> long investigation report about it and it may
> still be in the archives if they go back far
> enough.
> The explanation is blindingly simple.
> It's a "terrestrial" meteorite., blasted off the
> Earth by impact and returned to the Earth
> 100,000's of years later, instead of wandering
> the System or ending up on Mars or Venus...
> The simulations of interplanetary transport
> by Melosh, Gladman, and others, always
> show a fair percentage of impact "liberated"
> materials returning to their world of origin.
> Nininger found a fossilliferous meteorite
> too, with a thin calcinated fusion crust and
> wrote, briefly, about it, but he, unlike Zenzen,
> knew when to shut up.
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ----------------------------------------------
> chris aubeck wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Last year, on September 21st, I received a reply on this list from
> > G?ran Axelsson which ended, enigmatically:
> >
> > "As a sidenote there were a meteorite found in sweden almost 100 years
> > ago with fossiles in it. Anyone want to debunk that one?
> >
> > :-)
> >
> > /G?ran"
> >
> > I was seriously interested in seeing a copy of the original article,
> > but unfortunately Mr. Axelsson didn't reply. Can anyone tell me
> > anything about it? This is exactly what I collect and study.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Chris
> > ______________________________________________
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>
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Received on Tue 06 Sep 2005 08:40:56 PM PDT