[meteorite-list] Cali Colombia, the world's newest meteorite fall recovered!

[Michael Farmer]

Hello list members. I have been quiet for the last
week for good reason.  Robert 
Ward and I have been in Colombia (my old stomping
grounds) for the last week, 
investigating the newest meteorite fall on Earth.
Amazingly, this meteorite fell 
on 6 July, while we were both still in Sweden hunting
meteorites. Last week, 
while at home waiting to pick of the Sweden cargo, I
received a call from a friend who said that he had
seen a news 
clip in Univision (Spanish network) that a meteorite
had fallen in Cali, 
Colombia and pieces had hit houses. 
Immediately I went home and used google to search in
Spanish. In seconds I had 
articles and photos of meteorites that had been
recovered. Within two hours, I 
had plane tickets and flew to Las Vegas to meet up
with Robert. He had not even 
made it home after our month long trip to Europe and
he already had tickets for 
another hunt in South America!
So last Thursday we flew to Colombia, and began our
hunt which has been extremely 
problematic. After nearly one week, we are now
successful because of about 10 
newspaper and 5 TV interviews.
 
Ok, now for the fun part, a brief history of the Cali
Colombia chondrite fall.
On July 6th, at about 4:10 PM, a huge fireball
appeared over the Northern 
Cauca 
valley just on top of the Western range of the Andes
mountains, in the vicinity 
of the Calima lake. According to many reports from the
area, a huge fire in the 
sky appeared in a nearly cloudless day, moving rapidly
to the south and quickly 
breaking into two pieces. Just after it split into two
pieces, a huge sonic boom 
shook the ground, and the many towns in the mountains
and the edge of the 
valley, and according to RCN news, several reports of
windows shattering in 
homes. The fireball then exploded again several times,
creating a rolling 
thunder that lasted for at least a minute. 
Over 60 km to the south, in the city of Cali, people
heard a loud thunder from 
the mountains but only a few reports of people who
actually saw the explosion 
from the city itself. Minutes later, a shower of
stones rained down on the 
eastern 
barrios on the very edge of the city. So far, four
homes were hit and damaged by 
meteorites. 
The first stone, CALI #0001, landed in a home,
slamming through the tin roof, hitting the 
tile floor and chipping it. The stone shattered into
several pieces, and it 
weighed around ~80 grams when reassembled.  The
residents were home, and a small boy was playing 
on the patio. The homeowner heard a loud thunder and
yelled at the child to get 
inside as she thought it was a storm. Moments later, a
loud crash hit the home, 
and pieces of stone were all over the floor. The first
Cali meteorite had 
landed.  This meteorite has been sold to a university
professor in Spain, I do not know who but supposedly
for research, and it has already been shipped.


In another home about 3 km from the first, an elderly
couple were relaxing in 
bed taking the usual Colombian afternoon siesta, when
they heard the same 
thunder. They thought nothing of it, normal storms
here almost daily. Then 
moments later they heard a bang in the bathroom. They
went in and saw a light 
shining through the roof, where no skylight had been
moments before! In the 
shower stall, there were numerous fragments of a black
and white stone. It had penetrated the metal tin roof
and chipped the tiles in the shower. They 
thought that kids had somehow thrown a stone through
the roof, so they called 
the police, who came promptly and took a small piece
of the stone (now lost).  
Robert and I went to the home, and quickly bought the
remaining fragments from 
that stone ~25 grams. The entire stoned weighed ~40
grams as best as we can 
guess. I cut out the hole in the roof and have the
rooftop and meteorite fragments.

The third stone landed in a nearby home ~1 km away.
The residents again were 
home, the mother in the living room and the children
playing on the patio. They 
were watching TV so did not recall hearing any
thunder, only hearing a large 
crash in the kitchen. The oldest boy ran into the
living room, yelling that a 
stone had broken the roof. The mother went into the
kitchen, only moments later, 
to see a small complete black stone laying on the
floor. When she picked it up, 
it was quite cold. Upon seeing the hole in the roof,
she noted that the stone 
had impacted and dented the top of the refrigerator,
and damaging a box on top 
of the fridge. We cut the roof out of this home as
well, and now Robert Ward is 
the proud owner of Cali #0003, a complete stone
weighing around ~40 grams. We 
photographed the damaged fridge of course, but could
not buy it as it was in 
good working order and only had a large dent in the
top.

The fourth stone came to me only tonight, a few hours
ago. I had done a Sunday newspaper 
interview, a full page article about Robert and I,
titled "A meteoritehunter has 
landed in Cali".  I received a call just as I  was
wrapping up another newspaper 
interview to be published tomorrow. It was from the
first newspaper, who said 
that a man was in front of her, holding a large
meteorite, the largest yet 
recovered from this fall. We jumped into a Taxi and
rushed downtown. As I walked 
into the office, I saw a beautiful stone meteorite
sitting on the editors desk. 
I spoke with the man, and within 30 seconds, I bought
the 4th Cali meteorite. We 
took two taxis back to his home, and saw the damage.
This particular piece is very interesting to me. It
weighs around ~120 grams, 
and is a nearly complete stone. When the meteorite
fall, the people were all at home, mother, father, 
grandparents, children etc, all sitting in the living
room. A phone call from 
the homowners sister came in from Yumbo, ~50 km to the
north of Cali. Her sister 
was frantic, saying that only seconds before, a
massive ball of fire had gone 
over her home and exploded, shaking the home so bad
she thought that it would 
collapse. She immediately called her sister in Cali.
As she was on the 
phone, a loud explosion hit the rooftop just above the
family, fragments of tile 
fell down on them, and as they looked up, a hole in
the roof on top of the wall 
let light shine through. They quickly climbed up the
stairs to the top of the 
house where laundry is hung up to dry. There they saw,
avbout 1 meter from the 
hole in the tiles, a black stone. When the father
picked it up, it was very 
cold.  I bought this stone, and took all of the
fragments
 of broken tile, but could not get the entire roof
section as it is very large 
and it rains here daily and he had nothing to cover it
with. Perhaps something 
can be done tomorrow, but I doubt it. 

Besides these stones, 3 pieces have been found in the
streets like in Park Forest, and the total known
weight of Cali is still less than 350 grams!

These are the four known hammerstones of the Cali
meteorite.
More reports to come, but I have a very long day of
hunting planned for 
tomorrow. 

One note though, it seems that the vast majority of
the meteorite fell to the 
south, in thousands of acres of sugarcane fields, and
anyone who has ever seen a 
sugarcane field could tell you that it is 100%
impossible to even see into, much 
less walk in, as it is so thick it is black inside,
full of poisonous snakes, 
and water. It also went into the garbage dump for a
city of more that 3 million 
people. So unfortunately, almost all of this meteorite
will be lost. 
The areas where pieces fell are in the poorest and
most dangerous slums in the 
city. I have had police escort some of the time, and
am told by nearly everyone 
to leave the area as it is far too dangerous for
anyone to be there, much less a 
gringo who has been in the news lately. 
So hunting has proven to be almost impossible. Anyone
planning it, if you do not 
speak Spanish, and do not want to be robbed or
kidnapped (Colombia's national 
pastime) I would think twice, and then think some
more............. 
Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the
world, and only the fact that I have experience
working here has allowed me to do what I have done so
far.

Michael Farmer

For a view of Robert Ward's stone, click here
http://www.elpais.com.co/paisonline/notas/Julio102007/meteorito.html



More of the story tomorrow.