[meteorite-list] New Orleans meteorite caused Katrina!

From: Michael Murray <mmurray_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:21:16 -0600
Message-ID: <5563B6A1-82F1-45A7-9522-AEB61BEF76DA_at_montrose.net>

"as meteorites go, it was pretty low-grade"

Uh, any stones falling out of the sky that are too "low-grade" for
anyone, don't fret, just leave them lay where they landed. I'll come
get them. : )

MIke


On Oct 19, 2008, at 11:25 AM, Darren Garrison wrote:

> I really hope this guy was kidding-- it would sadden me to think a
> superstitous
> nitwit flake owned a nice meteorite like that.
>
>
> http://blog.nola.com/chrisrose/2008/10/
> the_rock_that_ruined_new_orlea.html
>
> The rock that ruined New Orleans
>
> It's taken three years since The Thing, but we've finally found an
> explanation
> why so much has gone wrong around here the past few years. And it's
> probably not
> what you suspect.
>
> Just over five years ago, a meteorite crashed through the ceiling
> of a home in
> Broadmoor, and since then everything has gone down the toilet.
>
> Yep, that's it. That's the cause of Katrina, the flood, FEMA, Ray
> Nagin and
> everything else that's happened since then, down to and presumably
> including
> Martin Gramatica's missed field goals.
>
> All this, of course, depends on whether you believe the theory of
> one Robert
> McDade, New Orleans scientist, mineral collector and certified
> eccentric.
>
> McDade, a retired petroleum engineer, is the proprietor of the
> Southern Fossil
> and Mineral Exchange on Magazine Street. "My little rock shop," he
> calls it. And
> he is convinced that the Broadmoor meteorite is the source of our
> communal
> sorrow.
>
> Some background: Five years ago -- Sept. 23, 2003, to be exact -- a
> 40-pound
> meteorite crashed through the roof of the house owned by Roy and
> Kay Fausset, on
> Joseph Street, between Claiborne and Fontainebleau. It was a rare
> occurrence,
> enough to merit not only a story in The Times-Picayune, but People
> magazine as
> well.
>
> The meteorite was not particularly notable for its size, structure or
> composition. In fact, as meteorites go, it was pretty low-grade.
>
> "It was not magnetic," McDade says. "This one basically looks like
> a piece of
> concrete. It looks like a piece of street corner curb that got
> busted up and is
> lying in the street."
>
> To the naked eye it would be hard to tell that this was a messenger
> from the
> heavens.
>
> "In general, it can be very hard to tell" what is a meteorite and
> what is not,
> McDade says. "But there are tell-tale signs."
>
> One sign would be the combination of the minerals olivine,
> pyroxene, plagioclase
> and troilite -- all of which were contained in the Broadmoor
> meteorite.
>
> And there's another clue.
>
> "When one falls through your roof, that's a pretty good indicator,"
> McDade
> notes.
>
> Such a phenomenon is called a "witnessed fall," which makes the
> heavenly debris
> not only an extremely rare object, but also a particularly valuable
> one, at
> least in the eyes of meteorite collectors, a group McDade calls "a
> fanatical
> bunch."
>
> It took McDade six months to negotiate a deal with the Faussets to
> acquire the
> meteorite; to specialized collectors, these things are like
> baseballs hit by
> Babe Ruth or locks of hair from Marilyn Monroe.
>
> "I don't know that I want to tell you exactly what I paid," McDade
> says. "But
> let's just say that witnessed falls can fetch a good price."
>
> The Faussets have been generally media shy about the whole episode
> and did not
> want to comment for this story. But Roy Fausset did say, in a 2003
> interview:
> "I'm in shock. I will certainly go to church this Sunday, because
> the Lord was
> certainly sending me a message."
>
> And that brings us to the point, the connection to Katrina, to the
> deluge, to
> the horror of it all, and why that dang meteorite screwed the pooch
> for all of
> us.
>
> "Historically, meteorites, especially observed meteorites --
> witnessed falls --
> have been considered bad omens or good omens," McDade says. "People
> take this
> stuff seriously. Through the ages, there has been much significance
> when a
> meteorite falls. It makes a very dramatic entrance. It breaks the
> sound barrier.
> It leaves a vapor trail.
>
> "People have always asked: What's this all about? What was the
> message? What was
> it trying to tell me? In the Middle Ages, that was always the
> question. For
> instance, in times of war, it meant you have been given the
> blessing for
> battle."
>
> As for the question of whether a particular meteorite spells great
> fortune or
> doom, McDade says, "Often, it takes a couple of years to find out."
>
> That's the gig with New Orleans. Just 10 days before the fifth
> anniversary of
> the meteorite strike, Louisiana was severely impacted by its fifth
> named storm
> in five years.
>
> "Very rare," McDade says, ticking off the names Cindy, Katrina,
> Rita, Gustav and
> Ike.
>
> Coincidence? That's for you to decide. McDade has little doubt.
>
> "Five years after the fall, five hurricanes have happened. That's a
> bad sign, I
> would say. Five years later, if you consider the circumstances, you
> would have
> to say this was a bad omen. It heralded not great things coming our
> way --
> hurricanes, politics, the disappearance of the wetlands."
>
> Not convinced? Well, consider that the house it hit took 8 feet of
> water and was
> destroyed by Katrina. By any measure, that's bad karma.
>
> "The message was: New Orleans, get your act together," McDade says.
>
> But, with the sequence of "5"s played out, McDade suggests the
> stretch of the
> meteorite's message of dread may be over. He suggests we're in the
> clear. And he
> also says, in the Big Picture, maybe we got lucky.
>
> "It could have been worse," he says. "I'll tell you what would be
> bad luck: If
> New Orleans got hit by an asteroid. That would be bad luck indeed.
> If that
> happened, we would be wiped out. We should be thankful it was just
> a meteorite."
>
> So, who says there's no good news? Just be careful with this
> information. And
> remember: Next time you pray to the heavens for a sign, keep in
> mind that you
> might get more than you're asking for.
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Received on Sun 19 Oct 2008 02:21:16 PM PDT