[meteorite-list] NPA 05-09-1933: Nininger on Trail of Pasamonte Meteorite

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Lima News
City: Lima, Ohio
Date: May 9, 1933
Page: 11

SCIENTISTS ON TRAIL OF HUGE RACING METEOR

Territory Lighted By Queer Bluish Flame Streaking Across Heavens

FLASHED VARIOUS COLORS

Meteorite Doesn't Burn Anything, Being Cool Soon After Falling

IOWA CITY, Iowa. May 5. - (AP) - Scientists are hot on the trail of the 
first magnitude meteor that flashed over parts of Kansas, Colorado, 
Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico March 24.
    Detailed studies are being made by Prof. C.C. Wylie of the University of 
Iowa, president of the Mid-west Meteor association and Prof. R. E. Crilley 
of Iowa Wesleyan college and others in the hope that much useful data will 
result.

REPORT SIGHT

     On the morning of March 24 the territory along the meteor's path was 
flooded with a queer, bluish light. Wylie's reports from Texline, Texas, 
indicated that observers saw a dazzling, swiftly-moving ball of fire 
approach from the northwest with terrifying increase in size and brilliance.
    "A person's first impression was that the ball of fire was coming 
straight for him, and there was an impulse to run." Wylie noted in his 
reports.
     "The mass of light sparkled and quivered, throwing off flashed of 
various colors and sparks or coals which whirled back ad dropped to the 
ground.  It passed on to the southwestern sky with four sharp flashes and 
extinguished itself leaving a luminous cloud of dust conspicuous for half an 
hour or more."

EXPLOSION FOLLOWED

     A minute or two after its disappearance an explosion shook the earth, 
coming from the direction where the meteor disappeared, Wylie said. Blended 
with it was a crashing roar which rolled back along the path the ball of 
fire had traveled.
    "It is known that explosions are most violent near the termination of a 
meteor," Wylie said, "and that they are pronounced for some distance back 
along the path of a meteor, but are heard for only a short distance beyond 
the termination."
     Reports from various towns indicated that the meteor terminated before 
going as far as Tucumcari or Las Vegas, N.M., since explosions are not 
mentioned in reports from those towns. Wylie checked his reports with those 
of H. H. Nininger of the Colorado museum in Denver.

ENDED NEAR ROY, N.M.

     From Raton, N.M., Nininger said the meteor seemed to disappear in the 
direction of Tucumcari, and from Clayton it appeared to vanish toward Las 
Vegas. Lines drawn between these towns intersect near the town of Roy, 
established at that point the approximate spot where the meteor blazed 
momentary as a huge ball of fire, vanished and fell to the earth as stones.
     Nininger's interviews fixed the height of disappearance at between six 
and eight miles.

METEORITES COOL

     "There is no record of a meteorite scorching anything," Wylie said, "If 
found immediately after falling they are cool, not hot. For this reason a 
meteor expert is always dubious of the authenticity of a supposed meteorite 
when reported hot when found.
     "When a recent spectacular meteor fell, a lady in reality 300 miles 
away reported that it fell through a tree in a neighbor's yard, burning off 
some limbs as it dropped to the ground."

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
http://www.meteoritearticles.com

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