[meteorite-list] Norway Meteorite Impact Site Believed to be Found

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jun 13 12:24:03 2006
Message-ID: <004801c68e8d$545d9570$e242e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, All,


    It seems unlikely that a simple country rock fall
would produce a seismic event that would register on
seismograph stations several hundred miles away. So, while
this may not be the impact site, there must have been
an impact.

    A simple on-site examination would easily reveal
whether or not this bleme was formed by a hypersonic
(Mach 2 or so) impact or was a rock fall, I believe. At
these speeds, it would not be a crater blasted out (no
vaporization), but more like a big hammer whack.

    An meteoritic impact on a mountain side in hard rock
is not the usual crater site and I'm not sure anyone would
know exactly what one would look like, since it's unlikely
that anyone has ever seen one before. That's why I called
this site a "bleme" or wound. Tinkering with the news photo
in Photo Shop, I observe that in addition to the roughly
circular upper portion, there is a 50-degree segment of
a curved rim in the lower portion of the bleme that fits
the same ellipse.

    With enough filtering and fiddling, the thing begins
to look more like an impact feature, but then, I
could be manipulating it unconsciously. Since the
strata are linear, an elliptical lower edge seems odd
in a fracture fall. I see one block in the upper left
portion of the "crater" that, while it follows the strata,
is sheared off transversely at inner edge of the "crater."
I see few broken debris around and below the feature,
so if it was an impact, the mountain side should be littered
with freshly shattered rocks, while materials from a
"face slip" would be concentrated in a conical, "tail-up"
trail downslope. But to know that, you'd have to
be there.

    There would be no particular reason for the locals
to invent a detail like the "meteor" hitting a mountain
side, since the valley (the Reisa Dale) is broad and flat.
So, it seems likely that some individuals saw it actually
hit a mountain side. Since the witnesses seem to be
"locals" (farmers, etc.), it seems likely that they would
be familiar with the mountains around them, and be
able to remember which mountain it hit.

    Since we have a photo of the supposed impact site
so quickly (five days), this suggests no long search was
required. Of course, some witnesses are idiots. Some are
not. My guess would be that people who live and farm
north of the Arctic Circle, at 70 degrees N., must be
reasonably coherent folks, or they wouldn't last long
in that environment, which is probably pretty unforgiving
of idiots.

    My second guess is, time will tell.


Sterling K. Webb
----------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Farmer" <meteoritehunter_at_comcast.net>
To: "'Meteorite Mailing List'" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 3:52 PM
Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] Norway Meteorite Impact Site Believed to be
Found


This is ludicrous! The photo shows a simple rock fall on the side of a
mountain. There is nothing to suggest a meteorite impacted at that spot.
These people obviously know nothing about meteorites, like most astronomers.

I mean, the one guy said it was "Atomic bomb" size, yet the suspected impact
site is about 5 feet across! Then the other scientist says that the first
exaggerated too much, then says that it was a 12 kilogram stone that fell. I
wonder just how he picked the 12 kilo number. It is clear that a meteorite
fell somewhere in the north of Norway, but that is about the extent of it
until actual pieces are found.
Mike Farmer
Received on Mon 12 Jun 2006 10:01:46 PM PDT