[meteorite-list] Adding a new impact site to the database
From: Randall Gregory <randall_gregory_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 07:21:17 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <983380.3804.qm_at_web52115.mail.yahoo.com> Gaetan, http://wikimapia.org/1171712 UNSA recorded epicenter: 72"37'08.16w - 16"00'01.71s IGP recorded epicenter: 16"20?59.77w - 72"46'5707s Julio Rocco vantage point: 72"29.37.86w - 15"59'18.66s Condor Rock : 72"35.08.82w - 15"56'46.61s I have pictures and videos. Gaetan Cormier <shattercone at gmail.com> wrote: Very interesting Randall... The reason why I asked for the coordinates is just that I wanted to check out on Google earth thearea of impact. But if there's a crater, somebody probably took photos of it? you have any? 2007/2/17, Randall Gregory <randall_gregory at yahoo.com>: Mr. Cormier, Thank you for your reply. Specifically, what documentation do you require? Background information on the fall can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/astroycpa/meteoritoaqp2feb2004.html www.geocities.com/astroycpa/astroalertas.html and can be translated from Spanish to English using Google language tools. Additionally, a Russian scientist investigating what he calls Geometeor events did a very good job of collecting information shortly after the fall. I have been in contact with him and after presenting the evidence, he agrees this was not a Geometeor event but an actual fall. The information he collected can be found at: http://olkhov.siteburg.com/gr1997.htm#20040202 Search for "February 2, 2004 Peruvian geometeor event". The impact registered almost 4.0 Richter across the Chilean and Peruvian seismic station network. I have seismic data for the event from both UNSA(University National San Augustin) and IGP (Geophysical Institute of Peru). Chilean data is in-process. Initially, people thought it might have been a airplane that crashed and flooded the local police with calls. The police then called the military. After everyone calmed down, they contacted the National University in Arequipa. Hastily organized searches were undertaken, but and they were unsucessful (they never went far enough into the desert). My father-in-law is a retired professor and with his assistance, I was able to consult with geologists at the National University of Peru (San Augustin). I helped organize the first real scientific expedition with scientists and students into the area, but we were unsuccessful in finding the impact site. It was kind of a crude search but it gave me valuable experience. Learning from mistakes... I subsequently organized additional expeditions after contacting and interviewing eyewitnesses to the fall. One of the most important pieces of information I gathered from these interviews was, sound measurements. I asked each witness to recall the amount of time from when they seen the impact to when they heard the explosion. With this information and the relative speed of sound in dry air, I was able to estimate the distance. I now had the direction and also the distance. With GPS, satellite photos and maps supplied by the University, I was able to launch a more directed scientific expedition. Each of the previous expeditions helped to narrow down the location. On the 6th expedition, we found the crater. There were times when we literally risked our lives, walking along ridges less than 18 inches wide, with a drop-off of several hundred meters. We roped ourselves and traversed very very slowly. As a matter of fact, I lived for a time with a family where both the mother and father eye-witnessed the event. She was washing dishes at the time when she heard a sonic boom, saw the fireball trail, the flash of light when the meteorite hit, felt the ground shake, heard the resulting explosion, and watched a column of dust rise thousands of meters into the air. She was about 30 kilometers from the impact. Her husband was out in the field, but didn't see the actual fall, but witnessed the effects after the meteorite hit. My wife and I became close friends with this family and I was recently asked to be the Godfather for their son's newborn baby! One of the other witnesses, from a different vantage point close to the Majes river was tending his herd of cows, having lunch with his son and looked up to comment about the weather, when he heard the sonic boom and watched "something" streak from the sky. He said it was extremely fast and fell close to vertical. His eyewitness account was extremely helpful due to the fact that there were small mountains in front of him which gave us a good ground-based reference. His picture is on the first web-link (Astro-CPA) pointing to the mountains. His name is Julio Rocco, a poor farmer with a large family. You asked for coordinates for the crater. I will send them to you if I can be assured that they will not be published until my paperwork has been approved and I have paid for rights. I want to protect the crater and have paperwork filed with the Peruvian government to grant me a mining concession to the crater and 100 hectares surrounding. There have already been scientists from Paraguay searching for the crater. People have cautioned me about giving out to much information until I have secured legal rights to the crater. I want to keep it in it's pristine state until scientists have fully studied it. I hope you understand. At the current time, I can give you seismic coordinates and general coordinates within 30 kilometers of the crater. I will start to send you information as you request it. Pictures, videos, reports, everything. Randall Gaetan Cormier < shattercone at gmail.com> wrote: Hello Mr.Gregory, Thank you for writing and sorry for the long delay for response. First of all, what concerns the Suspected Earth Impact Sites database, you need to contact David Rajmon. Here is e-mail address: drajmon at yahoo.com Out of curiosity, do you have the coordinates of that possible impact structure? Also you say that the fall was witnessed and documented, do you have those documents? I would be greatly pleased to read more about this event, it is very interesting. Hope to hear from you soon. Gaetan Cormier Member of the Impact Field Studies Group http://eps.utk.edu/ifsg.htm 2007/2/15, Randall Gregory < randall_gregory at yahoo.com>: Gaetan, I would like to add the crater I discovered to the impact studies database. It is located in southern Peru result of a witnessed and documented fall in 2004. The impact registered 4.0 Richter magnitude quake, with energy release equivalent of 1 kiloton of TNT. I would also like to become a member, but unfortuneatly, I can't commit to the meeting requirement. Randall --------------------------------- Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. --------------------------------- Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A. -- Gaetan Cormier Member of the Impact Field Studies Group http://eps.utk.edu/ifsg.htm --------------------------------- 8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick in no time with theYahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/attachments/20070218/04909a1c/attachment.html>Received on Sun 18 Feb 2007 10:21:17 AM PST |
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