[meteorite-list] Oh, The Stories They Tell....

From: JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2009 17:06:53 -0400
Message-ID: <A5CD7E17017A48E596C39957080AE222_at_ET>

There's a very simple explanation to this story: the guy's lying!!! How
do I know? Because they always lie!! Why would you ever assume even for a
second that such an outlandish story is true? I work at a small Earth &
Space Museum with a large collection of meteorites. Every single story I've
heard from people witnessing falls have been bogus. At least 10 people in
the last year and a half have brought in meteorwrongs that they swear up and
down hit their house. One was so hot that it melted the vinyl siding! (It
was railroad rock.) One hit the house, went through the roof, bounced
around inside awhile, then smashed through the wall and landed outside in
the yard. (It was silicon.) Others have hit houses narrowly missing the
occupants. (Slag, klinkers and more silicon). 3 or 4 people have been
outside and had to duck to avoid getting hit. (Hematite and yet more slag.)
Several people have come in with stories of seeing very large meteorites hit
the ground, explode, form big craters, etc. Every one of these I've checked
out has been a meteorwrong. Often people will bring in non native minerals
and swear they found them here in Indiana, or saw them fall from the sky. I
just had a chunk of antimony brought in that was supposedly found 30 feet
underground! My favorite was an older lady that just finished watching a
television show about how meteorites are worth millions of dollars, when
suddenly she was startled by the sound of something hitting the side of her
house. You guessed it, it was meteorites! 5 of them. (One was railroad
rock, 3 pieces of slag, a chunk of asphalt, and a piece of melted plastic.)
Under questioning, not one relented, they all stuck to their stories. They
seemed to really believe their stories. It's an interesting psychological
phenomenon that meteorites (like sex) seem to induce people to tell
outrageous stories.
Received on Sat 04 Apr 2009 05:06:53 PM PDT