Space Nomads: Meteorites in Sky, Field, and LaboratoryLaPaz, Lincoln
Science
Space Nomads: Meteorites in Sky, Field, and Laboratory
LaPaz, Lincoln
Meteorites
Kilbourn, Wisconsin stone 772 gm. 1911
Meteorite went through 3 thicknesses of shingles, a 1-inch hemlock roof
board, and a ⅞-inch hemlock floor board. It then glanced in turn against
the side of a manger and the stone foundation of the barn and finally
penetrated 2½ inches into the clay floor of the barn.
Pantar, Philippine Is. stone shower 1938
Sixteen stones were recovered; thousands “as big as corn and rice grains”
fell on roofs.
Sylacauga, Alabama stone 3863 gm. 1954
Meteorite penetrated composition roof material, ¾-inch wooden decking,
¾-inch wooden ceiling, and interior wallboard. It then hit a radio,
punching a 1-inch hole in plywood top, and bounced 90° towards the east,
striking woman lying on couch.
6. FINDERS FOOLISH, FINDERS WISE
People find a great many meteorites that were not seen to fall. Most of
these landed on the surface of the earth at some time in the remote past
or happened to fall in an originally unpopulated portion of the land
area of the globe. Generally, such meteorites are discovered entirely by
accident, although in recent years quite a few recoveries of unwitnessed
falls have been made by design. This has been the case during the
systematic surveys with meteorite detectors conducted around such
recognized meteorite crater areas as Canyon Diablo, Arizona; Odessa,
Texas; and Wolf Creek, Australia.
The different modes of discovery of meteorites not seen to fall are
interesting in themselves. The largest percentage of finds has
unquestionably been made by farmers. The Plymouth, Indiana, meteorite,
for example, was plowed up or, as the farmer nursing the rib bruised by
his bucking plow would probably prefer to say, “plowed into.” So were
such meteorites as the Algoma, Wisconsin; the Bridgewater, North
Carolina; the Carlton, Texas; and the Chesterfield, South Carolina, to
name only a few. A farmer found the Kenton, Kentucky, iron while he was
cleaning out a spring. Another farmer was removing debris from an
abandoned water well in an attempt to revive it when he discovered the
Richland, Texas, iron. A field drainage project brought the Seeläsgen,
Poland, iron to light. A man planting an apple tree near his house dug
out the Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, iron, and a farmer hoeing tobacco
turned up the Scottsville, Kentucky, iron.
The second largest percentage of finds probably has been made by miners.
Prospectors and placer miners have mistaken numerous iron meteorites for
lumps of silver ore. Among these are the Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Lick
Creek, North Carolina; and Illinois Gulch, Montana, irons. The Aggie
Creek, Alaska, iron was raised by a gold dredge. The gold miners
recognized this meteorite as an unusual “haul” when it announced its
presence by clanging loudly on the metallic screen of the dredge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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