[meteorite-list] Cali chondrite fell extremely cold!

[AL Mitterling]

Hi Alex, Elton, Sterling and all,

Nininger did a number of investigations where people picked up 
meteorites soon after the fall. His conclusions were they were cold to 
the touch (a number of them frosted over) after falling. Seems however 
there is always an exception to the rule and this seem to be the case 
for Noblesville, Indiana which was recovered seconds after the fall 
nearly missing Broody Spaulding and his friend by a few feet. They 
claimed it was warm to the touch.

One of the Portales Valley specimens was said to have melted a tarp 
after its fall. This meteorite had lots of metal in it though and might 
explain that. Also in the hot desert it isn't impossible for the black 
crust to absorb heat and melt plastic.

I've come to the conclusion that most falls will be cold to the touch 
with a few rare exceptions being slightly warm to hot to the touch. 
There isn't any scientifically documented instances (that I know of) 
where meteorites have cause fires. They just aren't that hot. The study 
of meteorites is of undifferentiated material. If they were red hot, 
white hot when they fell then their isotopes would be re-set and all the 
useful information would be lost. The exception of course is the ablated 
crust.


--AL Mitterling



Mr EMan wrote:

In my mind this supports that the thermal transfer coefficent
is the key factor and that stones will be cold and irons will be
warm immediately after landing.