[meteorite-list] another dust storm hits Broken Hill in Australia

From: W&S Schroer <schroer_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:23:24 +0930
Message-ID: <B5C6E06D3F3A491884E86E5D7A7A53A5_at_WERNER>

Hi list,
it's Friday morning and the city is covered under a cloud of dust again.
It's not as bad yet as it was three days ago but I'm sure that out in the
desert more meteorites will be exposed thanks to the relentless storm.
Unfortunately, the bi-annual Gem & Mineral Show started today and will end
on Sunday. Most stall holder have travelled hundreds of miles to get here,
so for them it will be a financial disaster if it doesn't calm down soon.

Storms are quite common this time of the year but they normally don't carry
dust of this magnitude. The dust was originally moved earlier this year from
inner eastern Australia to the west when unusual heavy downpours in
north-eastern Australia created countless little 'rivers' and filled up the
normally dry salt lake called Lake Eyre in the north of South Australia.
Something like this happens only once in every decade or even less and it
creates a wonderful show of nature where the wildlife flourishes for a few
months until the lake dries up again.

And this is happening now and millions of fish and thousand of pelicans and
many more other animals are dying. A paradise is turning into hell right now
and since hundreds of thousand tons of fine dust travelled with the water to
this region, it is changing now from mud to dust again and those normally
harmless yearly storms pick up this fine material and carry it from west to
east covering a large part of Australia.
Unfortunately, Broken Hill is the first major city that gets hit by these
storms and by the time they reach the east coast with cities like Sydney and
Brisbane, the number of particles per cm? is much less. Still, people with
health problems will be badly affected there too.

Anyway, nothing can stop me from going to that show. Who knows, with the top
soil blown away I might find a meteorite on the foot path.....

Cheers
Werner Schroer
Received on Thu 24 Sep 2009 10:53:24 PM PDT