[meteorite-list] another new argentina fall??

From: MeteorHntr at aol.com <MeteorHntr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:09:25 EDT
Message-ID: <d15.211f879c.353a59f5_at_aol.com>

Let's hope they have the funds to both pay the people to
do the proper field work and the funds to pay the lucky
finders a fair reward in recovering specimens.

It is easy for a government to say "We get to keep
everything" but it is another for them to follow through
and spend the hundreds of man hours to do an adequate
field recovery operation.

Of course the government of Argentina has done little to
recover and preserve the Campos that are still in the
ground. Here is their chance to do a "witnessed fall"
correctly. Apparently this is what they wished for last
fall when they passed the new law, and now their wish
has come true.

Steve Arnold
 


In a message dated 4/18/2008 2:54:33 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
mexicodoug at aim.com writes:
Hi Sonny, Not that much more news other than I already posted unless
this is of help. It is a very large fall though only small fragments
are being reported:

* These are the approximate coordinates of the 700 gram piece reported
by the Agricultural Engineer Gabriela from the Nursury. Sorry if they
are off by a couple of meters:

31 Degrees 54'38.68" South
58 Degrees 19'50.76" West

* It is clear that hundreds (more like many thousands) of pieces fell
in the surrounding population of Berduc in the Entre Rios municipality.
Several in Berduc (hundreds of meters from the Nursury where the
"largest" piece was found) complained of their roofs being pelted with
a hail of tiny black rocks.

* One residence in Berduc spoke about their experience (her name was
withheld by the report), I'll paraphrase the woman who had about 25
grams of fragments with fusion crust, for you:

"We felt an illumination and it surprised us, but, we didn't pay that
much attention, it might have been a car to it and kept watching
television.

But the thing is, a little while later, we felt the piece [hit]. I
would say um, one... right away...I'd say about five minutes just after
the illumination; we looked out the windows and we didn't see any
clouds, no lights, no vehicles, nothing.

Like who would throw rocks? We went outside and turned on the outside
light. Well, we didn't want to go outside, we stayed inside, one
always avoids doing that at night. We thought was was that? but we
stayed inside well, kept watching television and we were there along
while. Then we left it like that, we didn't hear anything else, we did
nothing but we were left with that thought- what could that have been?

Well today in the morning right when we got up, the first thing we did
was go see was that was that rock, the dog was on his leash, and we
said, what?, the dog we took to look, then I told my grandson, so go up
on the roof, something happened on the roof last night, maybe a rock,
and thats how it went, he climbed up on the roof, and he found these,
little pieces of this. Later, he began to look like he's looking now
to see if there were more pieces that were bigger, since for us it was
a larger piece that (shook?) the window. This [rock with the burnt
rind] is something new for us. We're going to keep looking. It was
about 10:00PM, I don't know the exact time, maybe five minutes to ten
[at night 6 April 2008].

* The Astronomical Association of Entre Rios started the search within
two hours after the fall led by 29-year old Mario Peter Coordinato of
the Astronomical Association who did an first rate and outstanding job
with three co-members, without sleeping or even eating, interviewing,
etc., tracking down the fall in the first hours through the night
aftwer the bolide report at 10:03PM. He did such a good job at
documentation!!!!!!!!!!

* The Astronomical Association led by president Luis Trumper in an
excellent documentary gave a long, interesting and entertaining
presentation on the importance of meteorites in the study of the Solar
System. The documentary was of equal or better (!) quality than any I
have seen anywhere in the world. He should be heartily congratulated.
He said says after the initial two day search, that they don't have
resources to spearhead the search for more, but of course they'll be
back to look for more. He affirmed that the job is now in the hands of
the National Guard/Border Poilce force and other official government
police organizations.

* The fall is very close to the border [12 kilometers from the above
coordinates, to be exact] and was observed in Uruguay, also. Gonzalo
Tancredi, the IAU member from the University of the Republic of Uruguay
who led the dumping of Pluto's Planetary by arguing it had been wrongly
classified for the past 75 years, intends to go on a expedition to look
for some pieces, too.

* The event created quite a spectacle in the media including a news
helicopter, but strangely not many more pieces than the original 5 are
being reported (though it is obvious many are in the hands of the
locals). It has been a great event orchestrated by the Astronomical
Association in coordination with locals, local government officials,
the National/Border Guard and federal police forces and media throught
the region and capital.

* No photos of the 4-5 second 10:03PM bolide creating the meteorites
have been confirmed in the first week or so, so far.

* It is a stony meteorite, somewhat fragile, fragmenting easily,
possibly with shock veins, that moderately attracts a regular magnet.

So far there are two institutions who want to analyze the meteorite. I
think they are:
* Centro Austral de Investigaciones Cient?ficas, CONICET, Argentina
* Another University group in Spain

oes this help ;)
Best wishes and Great Health,
Doug
 



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Received on Fri 18 Apr 2008 04:09:25 PM PDT