[meteorite-list] Time delay: Park Forest / Mar 01 Eyewitness Report

[MeteorHntr at aol.com]

Bernd, Chris and all,

I would think that  like lightning, the closer you are the brighter the flash 
would seem, the louder  the thunder and the closer the two would be to each 
other.  And if the  lightning hit a tree, there might be a delay in when the 
tree would fall over  and hit your house.

So there should be various accurate observations from  many different points 
(not to mention various inaccurate observations mixed in  as well.)

We noticed that most of the "oriented" Park Forest specimens we  found were 
in the "wrong place" and by that I mean when we were hunting in a  zone where 
the specimens would average 12 to 15 grams in size, if an oriented  specimen 
was located, it was almost always twice as big as the others in the  area.

My guess is that an aerodynamic specimen might take a sharper dive  like a 
folded paper airplane might be want to do, and the tumbling non-oriented  ones 
might roll in the air on further down stream.   Come to think of  it, that 
might explain why the 1,430 pound oriented Brenham main mass was found  about a 
mile back on the axis from where the 1,000 pound Brenham was  found.

And speaking of the strewnfield line, one might expect that  different sized 
and shaped specimens could fall over a period of time, possibly  a minute or 
longer apart.  In the case of Park Forest, I think it was  determined that the 
small specimens were blown 15 miles or so to the east,  severely distorting 
the strewnfield on the ground compared to the burning flight  direction.

I am not sure how much a massive side wind might slow down the  fall rate, 
but it should have some effect, especially if they are blown at a 45%  angle in 
the dark flight descent.

Steve Arnold
Arkansas

In a  message dated 3/27/2008 3:24:16 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
bernd.pauli at paulinet.de writes:
Hi Chris and List,

Chris writes: "In  the end, I take almost everything
reported by witnesses with a strong dose of  skepticism."

.. which can readily be supported by what these eyewitnesses  had to
say with regard to the duration (in seconds) of the thunderous  noise:

- all of a sudden the sky turned bright and there was a brief  thunder => 
brief
- unmistakably a thunderous noise => 5 seconds
- a  pretty loud thunder was to be heard for ca. 10-25 seconds => 10-25  
seconds

Would a *multiple breakup* of the incoming meteoroid have a  crucial "impact"
on the respective parameters of the potential fall, or, in  simple words, 
could a
multiple disintegration of the meteoroid help in  explaining the broadly 
diverging
eyewitness  reports?

Cheers,

Bernd  




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