[meteorite-list] Crash BOOM Bang - Colorado spings event

From: Meteorites USA <eric_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:27:24 -0800
Message-ID: <4B44F22C.2040503_at_meteoritesusa.com>

It seems to me the definitions and people interpretations of sound is
the issue regarding the BOOM.

If I were to describe an impact type sound I might say BANG, or THUMP,
if I were to try to describe a crashing sound like multiple objects
colliding or perhaps some books or plates tumbling to the floor from a
high shelf I would probably use the word CRASH in my description. And if
I were to hear an explosion or "hollow" sounding impact (like that of an
object impacting a roof) I might say "it was a loud BOOM! or BAM"

It doesn't mean sonic boom or explosive boom or impact boom. It's
people's interpretations of sound and nothing more.

Eyewitnesses are usually not very accurate. They tell things from their
own personal perspective and experience in ways that relate to them,
which is fine, but for finding meteorites it's not reliable. It's
totally subjective, and it take a good investigator to get good solid
details.

Regards,
Eric

P.S. I doubt an M80 would blow a hole in much of anything. How thick?
1/4". 1/2". 5/8". I would be surprised if an M80 could blow a hole in
even a 1/4" piece of plywood. I'd be interested in seeing a video of a
real M80 blowing a hole in a piece of plywood. This isn't a challenge to
you personally Chris, anyone is welcome to produce a video showing just
that. I'll even post it on my site for all to see for comparison to the
hole in the roof.





On 1/6/2010 8:47 AM, Chris Peterson wrote:
> It doesn't have to be a sonic boom, that's just one possibility with a
> meteorite fall. In this case, the sound was described as being like an
> explosion or boom, both by witnesses inside the building as well as
> several blocks away. Some sort of mechanical noise from impact is
> certainly possible, although the descriptions are a bit off for that.
> One witness saw a flash of light and heard a boom, in the direction of
> the bar and low to the ground. Again, not consistent with a meteorite
> impact.
>
> In general, most meteorite falls are silent, with no sonic boom and no
> significant impact sounds.
>
> It could be a meteorite, but the evidence argues better for other
> explanations. It isn't even certain that something hit the building-
> this is exactly the sort of damage you see from small explosives (put
> an M80 on a sheet of plywood, and it will look just like the roof of
> this building).
>
> Chris
>
> *****************************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <meteoritehunter at comcast.net>
> To: <GeoZay at aol.com>
> Cc: <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>; <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 9:32 AM
> Subject: Colorado spings event
>
>> Why does there have to be a sonic boom? In New Orleans, a stone of
>> over 20 kg crashed through two floors of a house and ended up in the
>> dirt under the house, major city, nobody saw or heard anything other
>> than the neighbors who thought a car accident had happened.
>>
>> Kitchener, ONT, a guy golfing saw a 500 gram stone plop down in the
>> grass a few feet from him, no sounds heard.
>>
>> Can't this be a small meteorite, which somehow escaped detection.
>>
>> Something hit that building, and the object has not been found. That
>> means it was pocketed, because it did not evaporate into thin air.
>
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Received on Wed 06 Jan 2010 03:27:24 PM PST