[meteorite-list] Question on NY meteorite fall

[Mark Crawford]

Hey Carl,

If you assume that the date range could easily be 5 years either side 
(your lady isn't a teenager!), MetBase lists 19 iron meteorites in the 
US between those. None were falls, and none were in NY.

If you ignore irons and look at all falls in the US between 1923 and 
1933, MetBase lists 13, none are iron, and again none in NY. Now my US 
geography isn't great, but I don't think Missouri, N Carolina, Jansas, 
Colorado, Virginia, Oregon, Texas or Illinois are particularly close to 
NY.  (Close as in enough to potentially see/hear a meteorite, which 
could land some distance away).

There are in fact only 4 recorded falls from NY - Bethlehem (1859), 
Yorktown (New York) 1869, Schenectady (1968) and Peekskill (1992). 
Combined TKW is just over 14kg.

We can only really go on published data. It is, of course, possible an 
iron was found and lost/cut up/smelted, but it would be hard to move and 
if your witness saw it fall to earth others would have too, and it would 
likely have been communicated by that period. My money would be on 
conflated or hazy memories; munitions? dug-up septic tank? I don't know, 
but in the absence of any other evidence on balance it doesn't ring true 
to me.

Mark


cdtucson at cox.net wrote:
> List,
> I have a question;
> I met a lady that swears she witnessed a meteorite fall in Potter, or Rushville, in the state of  New York on her grandfathers farm. His name was Floyd Lafler. . Potter is just south of Rochester. . She was about 7 years old  around 1928. A meteorite fell and she heard detonations and her whole house shook. When her family went outside they observed a large iron  meteorite about the size of a large desk. She said it even smelled bad.
> Later some men in suits came with a large trailer and hauled the thing away. She is looking for any information about the fall. 
> I get nothing on a Google search. Is there any way to find out if this exists or what could have happened to this meteorite? Thanks.
> Carl Esparza
> IMCA 5829
> Meteoritemax
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