[meteorite-list] NPA 04-22-1976 Jilin Meteorite Article

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Valley Morning Star
City: Harlingen, Texas
Date: Thursday, April 22, 1976
Page:  A6


Largest Meteor Shower Hits Northeast China

    HONG KONG (UPI) - More than 100 meteorites, including one that weighed a 
record 1.9 tons, fell over 300 square miles of northeast China last month in 
one of the biggest meteorite showers in history, the New China News Agency 
said Wednesday.
     The official news agency said although the area embraced six communes 
with a combined population of more than 100,000, the shower caused no loss 
of life or serious damage.
     The shower occurred on the after of March 8 when a large meteor - or 
"shooting star" - entered the earth's atmosphere moving at about 7.5 miles 
per second.  It began to burn as a result of the intense friction and was 
observed as a large fireball over Kirin City in northeastern Kirin Province.
     NCNA said the meteor "exploded in the sky over the Chinchu People's 
Commune on the outskirts of Kirin City and scattered radially in all 
directions."
     "Judging by the meteorites already recovered, the shower covered an 
area of more than 500 square kilometers (310 square miles)," the report 
said.
     NCNA said a survey team dispatched to the site by the Chinese Academy 
of Sciences collected hundreds of meteorites raining in size from one pound 
to 3,894 pounds, the largest ever discovered.
     The report said the last of the meteorites stabbed through nearly two 
years of frozen soil, sank seven yards into the ground and formed a crater 
three yards deep and more than two yards in diameter.
     Only two previous meteorite showers have been discovered and studied in 
China in the past 26 years, NCNA said.  The first, which occurred during the 
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), was discovered in 1956 in China's southeast 
Kwangsi Province.  In 1972, a shower of meteorites fell in Kirin Province.

(end)


Mark Note: This article refers to the Jilin meteorite.