Including Original "Paul H. Letters" Copyright © 1996-2025 Paul V. Heinrich / website © 1996-2025 Dirk Ross - All rights reserved.



Friday, 20 August 2004

re: antarctic impact

re: antarctic impact

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 20 13:55:57 EDT 2004

Marco Langbroek wrote:


>If these craters indeed are impact craters and

>0.8 Ma old, that's interesting. Even without

>this new findings there's evidence for multiple

>cratering events around 0.8 Ma. Apart from the

>australasian tektites, there's Darwin crater,

>and there are the Tikal tektites from meso-America.


The Tikal tektites are indeed interesting as they
have been dated at 800,000+/-100,000 and overlap
in composition with Australasian tektites. It does get
more and more curious.

Tikal tektite references

Nagy, H. M.,2002, Tikal Report 27B: The Artifacts
of Tikal : Utilitarian Artifacts and Unworked
Material, University of Pennsylvania Museum
Publication,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hildebrand, A. R., Moholy-Nagy, H., Koeberl, C.,
May, L., and others, 1994, Tektites found in the
ruins of the Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala. Lunar
and Planetary Science, vol. 77, pp. 213-219.

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Thursday, 19 August 2004

Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) Boundary Impact Disputed

Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) Boundary Impact Disputed

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 19 12:48:31 EDT 2004

A recent paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters
disputes interpretations that argue that a major comet
impact caused global climatic changes, which coincides
with the Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) Boundary. Instead,
this
paper, Schmitz et al. (2004) concluded:

" The environmental perturbations at the Paleocene-
Eocene boundary appear to have been triggered by
basaltic volcanism, but any model for the detailed
causal relation remains speculative."

The paper is:

Schmitz, B., Peucker-Ehrenbrink, B., Heilmann-Clausen,

C., Aberg, G., Asaro, F., and Lee, C-T. A. 2004,
Basaltic explosive volcanism, but no comet impact,
at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary: high-resolution
chemical and isotopic records from Egypt, Spain and
Denmark. Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
vol. 225, no. 1-2, pp. 1-17 (30 August 2004)

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Regional Deforestation Associated with Australasian Tektite Fall??

Regional Deforestation Associated with Australasian Tektite Fall??

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 19 12:47:54 EDT 2004

A recent paper, Haines et al. (2004), described
fluvial flood deposits containing abundant "abundant
organic debris, including whole tree trunks and
mammal bones", that its authors interpret to be
"the effects of regional deforestation, increased
run off and erosion, and other environmental
disruptions expected in the aftermath of a major
impact event."

The article is:

Haines, P. W., Howard, K. T., Ali, J. R., Burrett,
C. F., and Bunopas, S., 2004, Flood deposits
penecontemporaneous with ~0.8 Ma tektite fall in
NE Thailand: impact-induced environmental effects?
Earth and Planetary Science Letters. vol. 225, no.
1-2, pp. 19-28 (30 August 2004)

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Saturday, 14 August 2004

Source Stratum of Georgia Tektites Possibly Found

Source Stratum of Georgia Tektites Possibly Found

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Aug 14 13:52:19 EDT 2004

The latest issue of Geology (Geological
Society of America) has a paper about
the identification of grains of shocked
quartz in a sand bed within Upper Eocene
strata of Georgia. The paper argued that
they might be from the Chesapeake Bay
Impact and occur within in the source
layer for Georgia tektites.

The article is:

Duncan, M. S., Albin, E. F., Harris, R. S.,
Roden M. F., Schroeder, P. A., Holland,
S. M. 2004, Upper Eocene impact horizon in
east-central Georgia. Geology. vol. 32,
no. 8, pp. 717-720.

http://www.gsajournals.org/gsaonline/?request=get-toc&issn=0091-7613&volume=32&issue=8

In part, the abstract stated:

"We report the discovery of shocked quartz
grains in upper Eocene sediments from the
Coastal Plain of east-central Georgia. ...
These grains were collected from a sand
layer near the base of the Twiggs Clay
Member of the Dry Branch Formation and
most likely are ejecta from the Chesapeake
Bay impact, which occurred between 35.7 and
36.0 Ma. ... This horizon could represent
the source stratum for the Georgia tektites ..."

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Thursday, 12 August 2004

Explorers Find UFO Fragments in Tunguska Meteorite Area

Explorers Find UFO Fragments in Tunguska Meteorite Area

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 12 10:03:47 EDT 2004

Ron Baalke wrote:

"
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13705_tunguska.html
Explorers find

UFO fragments in Tunguska meteorite area
Pravda.Ru (Russia) August 10, 2004

...text deleted...

"Members of the scientific expedition of
the Siberian state foundation Tunguska Space
Phenomenon say they have managed to uncover
blocks of an extraterrestrial technical device.
The space body, which was later called the
Tunguska meteorite, fell down on Earth on June
30th 1908, 65 kilometers off the Vanavara
settlement, the Evenkiya republic."

My wife, who from Russia, cautions the readers of this

list to take what is written in modern Pravada with
considerable amount of skepticism. From her
experience,
it isn't much different from the Parvada of Soviet
times.


>From what I have seen, it has the habit of publishing

various unverified and sensationalist news stories
with
a large content of junk science that would be at home
in New Age magazines, i.e. "Atlantis Rising", which
regularly publish poorly written articles about
various types of junk science. i.e. Antarctic being
the site of Atlantis and Hindu Old Earth creationism.

An example of such an article is " "Black Holes"
Devour People", which was published in Pravada on
April 26,2 004. It can found at:

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/12624_Holes.html

A paragraph from this article reads:

" "I blame the so-called "black holes" for
disappearance of people", says Jane Lindsett,
Professor, California University, San Francisco.
"Periodically, time and space on Earth refract,
and entire cities may find themselves in a different
dimension, which sometimes "spits them out".
There are scores of such "black holes " on Earth,
and people frequently get in them. A decade ago,
a 36-year-old Lydia Kimfield, Androver (Texas),
disappeared during her visit to the doctor. An
hour later her body was found one thousand
kilometers away from the city. An autopsy showed
that she had died two months earlier! In the
state of New Mexico there is a road on which 19
people disappeared without a trace, the last
case being in 1997. The road runs across the
desert, which can be observed from air. The
vanished people might have been carried over
to the ocean or woods where they perished.
Objects cannot travel across space, that's why
ships were found vacated, but the belongings
of those who disappeared were in place"."

Other examples of junk science published in Prvada
are:

Taking Photographs of the Past is Possible: A
scientist
from the Russian city of Voronezh invented a camera
for
that 18:50 2003-02-17
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/02/17/43424.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13657_ghost.html

Anomalous ground holes appear in the Russian province
Ufologists suppose, aliens land on Earth to take
ground
samples 08/03/2004 18:27
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13614_aliens.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/

Sexual contacts with aliens occur frequently: Aliens
take samples of semen and ovule from human abductees
for their genetic experiments 08/04/2004 18:15
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13623_aliens.html

UFO Prevents Blast at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant
Eyewitnesses say that they saw an UFO hovering above
the
exploded reactor 16:15 2002-09-16
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/09/16/36691.html

3-D Map of the Earth created 120 millions of years
ago.
On-line press conference with Alexandr Chuvyrov 14:48
2002-04-30
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/30/28149.html
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/05/30/29507.html

Atlantis Under Antarctica? 13:00 2002-12-02
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/12/02/40228.html

Atlantis Will Be Found: Russian researchers have held
the Second Congress of Atlantis Explorers in Moscow
05/26/2003 11:19
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/10080_atlantis.html

These articles provide examples of the complete lack
of any
vetting for junk science by Pravada in what it
publishes.
Thus, a person should have a healthy skepticism of
what in
the way of the various "science" articles is published
in it.

Finally, a person might want to note that Lenin still
appears
on the banner at the top of its page, which says much
about
it philosophy and how it has changed since Soviet
times.

http://english.pravda.ru/images/06.gif

Yorus,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

P.S. For some interesting off-topic news, a person can
go to:

Cat pounces on pilot mid-flight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3551672.stm

Tuesday, 10 August 2004

Review Paper on Chondrules Published in EPSL

Review Paper on Chondrules Published in EPSL

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 10 10:37:56 EDT 2004

Dear Friends,

the latest issue of Earth and Planetary Science
Letters
has a review article about chondrules. it is:

Zanda, B., 2004, Chondrules. Earth and Planetary
Science Letters. vol. 224, no 1-2 , Pages 1-17
(30 July 2004)

The abstract ends:

"The current most popular mechanisms for forming
chondrules in a nebular setting are radiation
emitted by the protosun in the X-wind setting
or shock waves propagated in the protoplanetary
disk. In the latter case, chondrule formation
may have contributed to the first stages of
accretion, which would have helped preserve the
chemical complementarity between chondrules and
matrix. It is important that the chemical and
isotopic properties, and even the petrology,
of chondrules be reassessed in order to allow
the development of chondrule formation models
that better fit these constraints."

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Sunday, 8 August 2004

Fireball Crashes Into Desert East of Bullhead City, Nevada

Fireball Crashes Into Desert East of Bullhead City, Nevada

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Sun Aug 8 23:05:47 EDT 2004

Dear Friends,

While talking with a friend in Nevada, he mentioned
that he heard a report of a firball crashing into
the desert near Bullhead City, Nevada. He joked that
I should come look for meteorites there instead of
Louisiana.

Unfortunately, all I could find were some fragments
of text about it on the Internet. What I could find
was:

"Sky explosion investigated; airplane blowup ruled
out"
August 7, 2004, Mohave Valley News, Mohave Valley
News, NV

"Fire Marshal Jim Dykens said the reporting party
met with authorities and said they saw what
appeared to an airplane exploding and crashing in
the desert east of the city."

"It was also reported the explosion was followed
by three smaller bursts"

They have searched for plane wreckage and found
none. If they were looking for plane wreckage, not
meteorites, they have very well overlooked anything
that was out there.

I guess if people wanted some more specific
information, they could contact the Fire Marshal
named above.

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Friday, 23 July 2004

Popigai Impactor Indentified

Popigai Impactor Indentified

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Jul 23 14:08:09 EDT 2004

This week's issue of Science has a short paper, which
argues that a L-chondrite meteorite made the Popigai
crater in Russia. The citation is;

Tagle, R., and Claeys, P., 2004, Comet or Asteroid
Shower in the Late Eocene? Science. vol. 305,
no. 5683., pp. 492.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/305/5683/492

Popigai Impact Structure
http://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabase/images/popigai.html

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Yanshan meteorite crater

Yanshan meteorite crater

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Jul 23 09:26:34 EDT 2004

I couldn't find any information about a "Yanshan
meteorite crater". Apparently, it is the "Yanshan
meteorite" as possibly discussed by Alexander Seidel
at:

http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2004-July/142637.html


What I found on the web was:

1. Xifengite at:
http://webmineral.com/data/Xifengite.shtml
http://www.mindat.org/locentry-5890.html

"Innermost in spheres, surrounded by nickel-iron
minerals and their oxidation products, apparently
of extraterrestrial origin, found in placers."

and 2. Gupeiite at:
http://webmineral.com/data/Gupeiite.shtml
http://www.mindat.org/locentry-5890.html

"Innermost in spheres, surrounded by nickel-iron
minerals and their oxidation products, apparently
of extraterrestrial origin, found in placers."

Some references for both minerals that I found are:

Dunn, P. J., Chao, G. Y., Fitzpatrick, J. J.,
Langley, R. H., Fleischer, M., and Zilczer,
J. A., 1986, New mineral names. American
Mineralogist. vol. 71, no. 1-2, pp. 227-232.
(February 1986)

Generalov, Mikhail and Naumov, Vladimir, 1996,
Iron-chromium carbides and iron silicides from
gold-platinum-bearing placer of the Urals (Russia).
Congres Geologique International, Resumes
(30th) [International Geological Congress,
Abstracts] vol. 30, no.2, pp. 447

Zuxian, Y., 1984, Two new minerals gupeiite and
xifengite in cosmic dusts from Yanshan. Yen
Kuang Tse Shih. [Acta Petrologica Mineralogica
et Analytica] vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 231-238
(September 1984)

Zuxian, Y., 1986, Some new minerals from platinum-
bearing rocks in Yanshan and Tibet regions, China.
Dizhi Yanjiuso Sokan [Bulletin of the Institute
of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences]
vol. 2, no. 15, pp. 49-57.

It appears that these minerals were first found in
"cosmic dust" (Dunn et al. 1986 and Zuxian 1984) and
later found in platinum-bearing rocks and placers
(Zuxian 1986 and Generalov and Vladimir 1996).

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Wednesday, 21 July 2004

Where Were You When It Happened 35 Years Ago?

Where Were You When It Happened 35 Years Ago?

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Jul 21 09:15:43 EDT 2004

Some 35 years ago, I was with my family at my
grandmother's house in Falmouth (Cape Cod), MA. There,
I watched the first step on the Moon with my whole
family, two parents and five kids, and my Mom's mother
gathered around the television. It was a bit surreal watching
the first step on the Moon live on television. (It was one
thing that science fiction writers apparently failed
to predicted.) Afterward, my grandmother talked about
how she felt when she first read about the Wright
Brother's flight. It was was weird to think about her
having seen it all from the Wright Brothers to Neil
Armstrong.

Before it, I had been following the entire space
program and watching almost every televised launch of a
manned- space vehicle and even launches of unmanned vehicles.
My mother would arrange with teachers to either let me

leave school for an hour or so to be home to watch a
manned launch or watch the launch at school on
television.

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Tuesday, 20 July 2004

Flaming Pigeons Source of Egyptian Fireball Reports (?)15JUL04

Flaming Pigeons Source of Egyptian Fireball Reports (?)

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 20 17:32:23 EDT 2004

In "Fireball (sic) story from Egypt July 15" it was
written:


>> Dear All,

>> Does anybody hear abouth an event in the south

>> of Egypt where about 100 houses were burnt

>> due to fireballs falling on roofs and inflaming

>>the >> houses? >> Here is news report in Russian:

>> http://www.newsru.com/world/15jul2004/shar.html

>> Of course, maybe it is distortion by mass-media,

>>but anyway...

>> Best wishes,

>> Andrei Ol'khovatov


I found this version of the Egyptian Fireball Story

"Blazes in Egypt start "balls of fire" rumors
Reuters, Sun Jul 18,12:31 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=5706645
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20040718/od_uk_nm/oukoe_odd_fire

"CAIRO (Reuters) - A series of fires in the southern
Egyptian province of Sohag has destroyed some 160
houses, giving rise to rumors that spirits are at
work or mysterious balls of fire are falling from
the sky, a local official SAYS.

But the causes are mundane -- kerosene stoves,
cigarette butts and electrical short circuits,
Brigadier Ezzat Aboul Kassem told Reuters on
Sunday. Flaming pigeons, their feathers set
alight in the blazes, may explain talk of
balls of fire, he added."

""Investigations have shown that there are burned
pigeons on top of some of the burned houses and
it's probable that they fell there after catching
fire at other houses," he said. "Maybe that
explains the rumors of balls of fire falling
from the sky.""

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Where Were You When It Happened 35 Years Ago.?

Where Were You When It Happened 35 Years Ago.?

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 20 01:08:21 EDT 2004

The questions are: "Where were you when
Neil Armstrong first stepped out on the
Moon 35 years ago?" "Where did you watch
it and with whom?"

35 Years Ago Tuesday Men First Stepped Foot on the
Moon
By My Wise County, My Wise County, Virginia
http://www.mywisecounty.com/news/071904-2.htm

First walk on the moon remembered 35 years later
CTV, Canada
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1090020187109_3?hub=SciTech


Commentary: US remains lost in space
By Martin Sieff, United Press International
Published 7/19/2004 5:30 PM
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040719-045828-8640r


Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Monday, 19 July 2004

Mysterious Rosicrucian Meteorite - What Was It?

Mysterious Rosicrucian Meteorite - What Was It?

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Jul 19 20:08:19 EDT 2004

I was searching through Google News Search Engine to
see if I could find anything more about the story of
the alleged fireball that set fire to the vollage in Egypt.
Instead the keywords "Egypt" and "meteorite" gave
me the following article:

"Rosicrucians make pilgrimage to San Jose"
Biloxi Sun Herald, MS, Jul. 03, 2004
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/9075308.htm.

Talking about the Rosicrucians' headquarters, it
stated:

"For generations of San Joseans, it's
an eclectic theme park incongruously
set in an otherwise ordinary neighborhood
of leafy streets and picturesque homes.
Its onion-domed planetarium, statue of
Pharaoh Thutmose III, 60-foot obelisk
and Egyptian-style buildings with
hieroglyphs and columns recall school-
day field trips."

Talking about children taking these fieldtrips, it
stated:

"Later, as adults, they may have strolled
its lush gardens or read about the mystery
of the missing 209-pound meteorite. (The
exhibit, which had been on display 40
years, was stolen by a former security
contractor and never found.)"

A 209 pound meteorite sounds like an awfully large
meteorite to have disappeared into thin air.

Does anyone know about the history of this meteorite
as to where it was found, type of meteorite, when
it was stolen, and so forth?

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Wednesday, 7 July 2004

Loaves and fishiness

Loaves and fishiness

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Jul 7 22:51:57 EDT 2004

Marc D. Fries wrote:


>I'm rather intrigued with Shirokovsky.


Yes, I agree, it is an interesting X-File type of
object. I might track down some metallurgists,
whom I know, to see what they have to say. Also, my
Russian wife can translate into and type letters
in Russian on my Russified Mac, if needed.


>In looking at the pictures, a couple of things

>jump out - first off, most of the pieces are shaped

>like loaves of bread, or like ingots.


In terms of being "...then sand-cast the resulting
melt into fine sand pre-forms roughly pounded out
to look like meteorites.", they seem to be too
ingot-like to have been made as deliberate fakes
formed to look like meteorites. To me, the ingot-like
forms suggest some sort of industrial by-product,
not something shaped to deceive. My (naive?)
impression is that we are dealing with self-delusion
on a massive scale instead of fraud.

That the olivines are of a type associated with Ni-Cu
ores and of the approximate age of Ni-Cu ores
associated such deposits suggests to me that whatever
created the Shirokovsky material might have something
to do with the smelting of such ores. The local Ural
olivines are far too old and not associated with
Ni-Cu ores from what I can tell and, thus can't be
their source. If Shirokovsky was made simply as a
fake,
the people involved logically wouldn't have ignored
local olivines,in favor of more distance olivines
associated with the Ni-Cu ores.

(Also, it doesn't look like it has been underwater
for 44 years. (Of course the water is cold, but
still there should be some obvious corrosion.)


>Secondly, the comment that the olivines did not

>equilibrate with the metal matrix, but rather

>"cooled quickly in a strongly oxidizing environment"

>is interesting. An oxidizing environment such as

>...air??


This is a devasating argument. Quick cooling
in an oxidizing environment certainly puts the
stake in heart, as if it was needed, of the
meteorite interpretation.

Also, I get the feeling that the promoters of it make
much of a nonexistent connection between the hole
in the ice and what was found on the bottom of the
reservoir. Given that the fall happened in 1956, how
do they know exactly where to search in 2002 some
44 years later? Are there any records of someone
determining the location of the hole in 1956 with a
survey before the ice melted?

It would be interesting to find out what sort
boat and barge traffic uses the Kosva River near
Shirokovsky. If there is any sort of commercial
or industrial traffic, there is almost an
unlimited variety of stuff that could get dumped
into the reservoir. I suspect the promoters of this
material as a meteorite likely don't realize that
all sorts of really weird stuff gets dumped into
reservoirs.

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Shirokovsky - Some Thoughts

Shirokovsky - Some Thoughts

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Jul 7 01:22:44 EDT 2004

Peter Marmet wrote:


>as far as I know, the lastest info is still this

>special statement of the meteoritical society:


http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/bulletin/shirokovsky.pdf
"

One really curious thing about the Shirokovsky
material is that its K-Ar age of the olivine is
"about 270 million years". This is curious because
there are metalliferous ultramafic rocks of that age,
which contain dunite, a rock composed entirely of
olivine.

What is also most curious is that Au, Ir, and Os of
the olivine is typical of olivine found in Cu-Ni
deposits. It is curious because, there are large
ultramafic Cu-Ni ore deposits that occur in Russia
which contain olivine-rich rocks. For example,
there are "seven major ore deposits associated
with the basal portions of such olivine rich
intrusives" in the Noril'sk / Talnakh Ni-Cu-PGE
(Platinum-Group Elements) ore deposits. By coincidence

or not, these olivine-rich intrusives are part of
subsurface sills associated with extensive flood
basalt accumulations, called the "Siberian Traps",
is about 251 million years in age, which is quite
close to the "about 270 million years age" of the
Shirokovsky material. The inexact age determination
made on it, could be off by 20 million years.

Within the Central Urals, there are numerous
ultramafic
complexes that contain dunites associated with rich
chromite and PGE (Platinum-Group Elements)
mineralization and ores. Any of these could be
potential nearby sources of the olivine, which might
have been associated with ore being transported or
smelted.

Given the detailed analyses of the olivine in the
Shirokovsky material, a person should be able to
determine whether any potential / possible source for
the olivine described in the above Meteoritical
Society Report exists within Russia.

mark ford wrote:


>In all the pictures I have seen, to me

>it doesn't quite seem right for a

>pallasite the crystals look a bit too

>sharp and pointed', (just an observation)

>anyone agree with me?


I agree completely with you. Go read "[meteorite-
list] Shirokovsky Texture - A Red Flag As to Its
Origin??" at:

http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2003-June/091826.html

There I stated:

" I have been looking at a number of pictures of
fragments of Shirokovsky that were shown on
various web pages and pictures of pallasites.
After comparing them, there appears to be, in
my opinion, a rather drastic difference in the
texture of the olivine grains within each. In the
pallasites, indvidual grains are equant and either
rounded or euhedral. Also, in the pallasites, a
person can find examples of olivine grains that
have coalesced together.

Examples of this texture can be seen at:

http://www.meteoriteman.com/collection/thiel.htm
http://www.meteoriteman.com/collection/dora.htm
http://www.meteoriteman.com/collection/mtvernon.htm
http://meteorites.asu.edu/pallasite.jpg

In comparison, pictures of the pieces of
Shirokovsky that I have found have a different
texture. the olivine crystals are far more angular
and variable in outline than found in the pallasites,
for which I found pictures. In fact, some of the
olivine pieces in pictures of Shirokovsky are even
flat rectagular blades quite unlike anything seen
in true pallasites. In addition, I don't see any of
the merged / coalesced olivines seen in other,
Overall, the Shirokovsky has the appearance of a
terrazzo floor made up of fragmented rocks."

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Monday, 5 July 2004

Fires Threaten Graham Mountain Observatory (Arizona)

Fires Threaten Graham Mountain Observatory (Arizona)

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Jul 5 23:51:32 EDT 2004

Fire still threatens Arizona observatory
Washington Times, DC -
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040705-021707-9766r.htm

"Phoenix, AZ, Jul. 5 (UPI) -- A stubborn wildfire in
southern Arizona remained a threat Monday to the Mount

Graham Observatory, considered one of the top
astronomy
sites in the nation."

Two wildfires threatening observatory and houses
http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1999424

Yours,

Paul

Wednesday, 30 June 2004

Original "Meteorite Kills(Fill in Blank)" Story Appears in WWW

Original "Meteorite Kills(Fill in Blank)" Story Appears in WWW

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 30 19:33:28 EDT 2004

While waiting in the local checkup line, I noticed
that this week's Weekly World News (WWW) has one of the
latest versions of the "Falling Meteorite kills (fill
in the blank) story. The headline reads, "Meteorite
Flattens Pope". In the tradition of the Weekly World
News, it is quite a shaggy dog story complete with
fake photographs. The people, who publish the WWW must be
really strange people.

Yours,

Paul

Wednesday, 23 June 2004

paper About Tunguska Event Impactor

paper About Tunguska Event Impactor

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 23 13:34:50 EDT 2004

In the March (2004) issue of Planetary and Space
Science, there is a paper discussing the identity
of the impactor, which produced the Tunguska Event,
that might be of interest to some list members.
The paper is:

Q. L. Hou , E. M. Kolesnikov , L. W. Xie , N. V.
Kolesnikova , M. F. Zhou and M. Sun, 2004,
Platinum group element abundances in a peat layer
associated with the Tunguska event, further
evidence for a cosmic origin. Planetary and
Space Science. vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 331-340
doi:10.1016/j.pss.2003.08.002

Based upon "excess" Pd, Rh, Ru, REE, Co, Sr, and Y
found in a peat column from the Northern peat bog
of the 1908 Tunguska explosion site, they concluded
that the impactor, which created the Tunguska event
was "more likely a comet", although the possibility
that the impactor might have alternatively been a
carbonaceous asteroid. They estimated that the
mass of either the comet or carbonaceous asteroid
was as large as 103-106 tons.

I am only reporting what this paper stated. I don't
know enough about the pro and cons of the various
arguments about the Tunguska event to evaluate
their conclusions in any intelligent manner. If
anybody needs more information, he or she can
find contact information for the authors by
clicking the link, "Volume 52, Issue 4, pp. 259-340
(March 2004)" at:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00320633

and following the article link to the abstract.

(Besides my library doesn't subscribe to Planetary
and Space Science. Thus, I only have access to the
article's abstract.)

Yours,

Paul

Friday, 4 June 2004

Security Cameras and Washington Fireball

Security Cameras and Washington Fireball

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Jun 4 09:34:38 EDT 2004

In the post "Washington Fireball" mark ford wrote:


> http://www.komonews.com/stories/31552.htm



>Film footage showing the Washington meteor

>illuminating the ground on security cameras

>... this is the real deal...


On these security camera tapes of the fireball,
there are some well-defined shadows of trees
and other objects. If the location of these
security cameras were known, couldn't the
shadows shown in the tape be used to precisely
determine the position of the fireball relative
to the cameras?

Just Curious

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Wednesday, 2 June 2004

Looking for Map of Meteorite Finds in Eastern US

Looking for Map of Meteorite Finds in Eastern US

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 2 16:07:58 EDT 2004

Is there any published map that shows the
distribution of meteorite finds in the United
States in the area of North Carolina, South
Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern
Alabama and Mississippi?

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA 70803