[meteorite-list] The Bruderheim Meteorite - 1960 Fall

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2013 13:48:54 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201303042148.r24Lmswd029004_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/March+1960+Massive+meteorite+illuminates+northeast+Edmonton/8043398/story.html

NOTE: this is an article about a meteorite fall in 1960.

March 4, 1960: Massive meteorite illuminates the sky northeast of Edmonton
Edmonton Journal
March 4, 2013

[Photo]
Meteor fragment found on a farm northeast of Edmonton.

Shortly after 1 a.m., a brilliant meteorite flared across the sky and
disintegrated with a blinding flash near Bruderheim, 50 kilometres
northeast of Edmonton.

Nearby houses were shaken, windows rattled and furniture moved by shock
waves. The flash was reportedly visible for 320 km, followed by
detonations like a sonic boom audible over an area of 5,100 square km.

The more than 300 kilograms of olivine hypersthene chondrite stone
constituted Canada's largest known meteorite. Just north of Bruderheim,
bits of stone and iron rained down, some plowing pits as deep as 30 cm
into the frozen earth.

Calls poured in to the weather office and radio stations as Edmonton
residents saw the flash in the sky on a west-northwest-to-east-southeast
trajectory. Because the late show had just finished on television, there
were several eyewitness accounts. The object was seen by control tower
personnel at the Edmonton and Namao airports, and there were sightings
of the meteorite as far south as Calgary.

Interprovincial Pipeline employees northwest of Edmonton described the
meteorite as a large, bright ball with a brilliant blue tail, and said
they heard a two-second rumble, about 2-1/2 minutes after the flash.

Douglas Crosby, associate professor of mathematics at the University of
Alberta, said it appeared to have been a rare phenomenon. The Bruderheim
Meteorite, as it came to be known, entered the atmosphere at such a high
speed that it not only became incandescent and burned - as all
meteorites do - but it also flared so rapidly it became explosive.

Members of the Edmonton branch of the Royal Astronomical Society picked
up some fragments near Bruderheim and turned them over to the U of A
geology department. The largest such shard, at nearly 31 kilograms, is
at the National Research Council in Ottawa, while other pieces remain at
the U of A.

The significance of the Bruderheim Meteorite endures.

"Aside from being the most significant meteorite fall by weight in
Canadian history, the collection of Bruderheim meteorites and trades in
the following decades are responsible for most of the growth of the
University of Alberta Meteorite Collection into the largest
university-based meteorite collection in Canada," Chris Herd, U of A
associate professor of earth and atmosphereic sciences, said years later.

"And the collection still contains over 145 kg of Bruderheim meteorites."
Received on Mon 04 Mar 2013 04:48:54 PM PST