[meteorite-list] Dayton, Ohio Meteorite (?)

From: Mike Groetz <mpg444_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jul 18 08:09:43 2006
Message-ID: <20060718114327.10368.qmail_at_web32914.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

   Are any of you familiar with this? Am wondering if
it is actually recorded under another name.
   Mark Bostick- I haven't checked your site yet to
see if you cover this- sorry if you already have.
Mike

http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/071706meteor.html

Scientists learn about origins of Earth by studying
meteorite
Dayton find provides key clues and offers some
interesting differences from others.
By Steve Bennish

Staff Writer

DAYTON ? Nobody is certain of its exact history, but a
meteorite that lore says landed in the 1890s at the
Montgomery County Fairgrounds has provided important
clues as to how the solar system formed.
   Of all the otherworldly buzz linked to Dayton since
manned flight took off and Hollywood extraterrestrials
slithered onto the scene, few celestial objects are as
little-known to the public as a chunk of iron space
debris known as the Dayton meteorite now housed in a
secure cabinet at the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, D.C.

   This particular meteorite, celebrated in scientific
circles, is one of 35,000 specimens stored in the
National Museum of Natural History Building on the
National Mall.

   It's not in its original shape because so many
slices have been taken for scientific research. The
meteorite's unusual composition has made it a popular
subject, said Tim McCoy, the Smithsonian's meteorite
curator. McCoy is quick to note that his Ph.D.
research dealt with the Dayton meteorite.

   Up to 3 million visitors annually who pass through
the spectacular, glittering displays of gems and
minerals, including the Hope Diamond, can see a piece
of the meteorite.

   The Dayton Daily News published articles about the
meteorite in 1951, and in 1966. But in the years that
followed, the meteorite was largely forgotten, even as
it was being sliced and diced and examined by
inquiring minds.

Meteorite's history

   As fall faded into winter in 1951, Chinese forces
invaded the capital of Tibet, NATO accepted Greece and
Turkey as members and on Oct. 4, the Daily News
reported that Smithsonian Institution officials
identified the Dayton meteorite as Ohio's ninth. Oddly
enough, it was noted, six of those nine verified Ohio
meteorites had fallen in or near the Miami Valley. The
Dayton meteorite, however, already had a colorful
history.

   It had been sent to the Smithsonian by Stuart H.
Perry, editor and publisher of the Adrian (Mich.)
Telegram, who also was an amateur meteorite collector.

   Perry came into possession of the iron through L.R.
Keyser, a University of Cincinnati student whose
grandfather, Albert Seifert, ran a concession stand at
county fairs.

   The story handed down from the family is that
during a summer evening in 1892 or 1893, the meteor
came screaming from the sky before it hit the
Montgomery County Fairgrounds with such force that it
buried itself four feet into the ground. It was
smoldering when recovered.

   Scientists believe otherwise. No mention of the
meteor's fall ever made it into scientific literature,
and Dayton at the time was flourishing. Further, the
meteorite showed signs of weathering that indicated it
hadn't landed in modern times.

   It's quite possible Seifert bought the meteorite
from a farmer he met at a fair, scientists now
believe. Seifert perhaps had a motive to hype the
meteorite's recovery. As a concession stand operator,
he had the meteorite on hand during lengthy travels on
the county fair circuit through Ohio, Illinois and
Indiana, and he likely used it as a novel customer
draw, McCoy said.

   "People could see (it) ... and buy something from
the concession stand,'' McCoy said.

How meteors form

   Falling stars continue to fascinate. Andrea Koziol,
professor of mineralogy at the University of Dayton
and president of the Dayton Gem and Mineral Society,
said she receives three or four inquiries a year from
those who believe they've found a meteorite. She has
yet to identify the real thing. The key sign is what
is known as a fusion crust, indicating a fiery descent
through the atmosphere, Koziol said.

   "As the meteor comes in, it gets very hot. But only
the surface gets hot. The exterior is burned and
melted. That is the key giveaway," she said.

Meteorite revealed

   Whether dug up by plow in a farmer's field or
discovered smoldering beside a fairground horse barn,
no one will probably never know.

   What is known, McCoy said, is that the 4.5
billion-year-old meteor once orbited the sun in the
Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter until it
collided with another object, which sent it hurtling
in our direction.

   Iron meteorites are generally thought to have
formed in the cores of asteroids, McCoy said. The
Dayton meterorite solidified later than other
meteorites, which left it with a very high percentage
of nickel.

   It led to other oddities, such as having two
phosphate minerals present that occur nowhere else in
the solar system.

Meteorite's meaning

   What all this means is that although technology
isn't advanced enough to allow us to sample the
Earth's core, we can learn how it might be composed by
studying meteorites.

   "When the hot, molten core crystallizes and changes
from a liquid to a solid, certain elements give us
clues to how that happens," McCoy said.

   It's significant, McCoy said, that while most iron
meteorites contain 5 percent to 10 percent nickel,
Dayton contains 17.6 percent. Nickel is an element
that provides clues about the transition from a molten
to a solid state.

   The later an iron meteorite crystallizes, the more
nickel it will contain, McCoy said. "To make matters
more interesting, Dayton probably formed in a
different way from our own core. As asteroids began to
heat up and melt, the metal that melted first may have
formed a very small core. Only with much more heating
and melting did a large core, like the Earth's, form,"
McCoy said.

   "The asteroid from which Dayton formed apparently
never reached this higher stage of melting, so it came
from a very small core. One of the interesting
features of this core is that it contained bits of all
kinds of other stuff, including elements like
phosphorus, sulfur and carbon and even pieces of
silicates like those that you might find in rocks
around you. This core had a long time to stew and the
elements and rock bits began to react."

   The reaction produced minerals found nowhere else,
McCoy said. Brianite and panethite are phosphates ?
much like fertilizers or the minerals in teeth ? but
they have very strange compositions, he added.

   "Dayton is the weirdest one of its group," McCoy
said. "Again, that makes it special and the reason
scientists want to study it."

   Ultimately, the meteorite offers clues to how the
Earth's core might have formed and the chemical
reactions that occurred during the birth of our
planet, McCoy said.

   "Whether it is from the city of Dayton or not, the
citizens there should be justifiably proud to have
contributed a one-of-a-kind meteorite that answers ?
and continues to pose ? such profound questions," he
said.





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Received on Tue 18 Jul 2006 07:43:27 AM PDT