[meteorite-list] Cali meteorite fall trajectory and offset ofdamage.

[Chris Peterson]

As I've noted often in the past, it requires very unusual conditions for 
a meteorite to retain any of its horizontal velocity component when it 
reaches the ground. The conditions of the Cali fall wouldn't seem to 
support this. These lightweight stones may have had a slight north to 
south angle because of the low level winds, or they may simply have been 
deflected on impact. You don't have enough samples to say with any 
certainty. But it is certainly the case that <100 g stones one minute 
past a terminal explosion are falling with a horizontal airspeed of 
essentially zero.

If these fell within 30 seconds of a terminal explosion, occurring at 
less than 10,000 feet height, some forward velocity would likely remain. 
Any chance of that?

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Farmer" <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com>
To: "Armando Afonso" <armandoafonso at oniduo.pt>; 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 9:38 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Cali meteorite fall trajectory and offset 
ofdamage.


> Armando, we did measure the hole/impact offsets, of 3
> of the 4 house smashers (Cali #004 did not enter the
> home, so there was only the initial impact point).
> The other two were offset from ~9 cm for Cali #003
> which hit the top of the refrigerator so did no travel
> very far after penetrating the roof.
> Cali #001 was offset more than 30 cm and it was
> exactly in the North/South trajectory, just like the
> dirction of travel, so it was not falling strait down
> at terminal velocity.
>
> Cali #002 was offset by about 15 cm, same, north/south
> trajectory.
>
> These are more things that I need to tweek on the
> pages. It shows to me that the meteorite were moving
> very rapidly for such small stones to do as much
> damage as they did, and they were not just falling
> strait down.
>
> Michael Farmer