[meteorite-list] Temperature of meteorites

[Frank Cressy]

Hello all,

I've been away from the computer for a couple of days and thought I'd add a 
couple of other examples.

Portales Valley - One of the metal veined stones landed on a blue plastic tarp.  

The tarp melted where the metal veins of the stone had rested on it.  It 
shouldn't be too difficult to determine a minium temperature that a similar tarp
would begin to melt.

Malaga - Here's an interesting example I ran across while researching some US 
falls.  A man was searching for Indian artifacts in 1933 in SE New Mexico and 
was headed back to his car when he observed the following:

 "...it became dusk by the time he reached the upper terrace, and the sky became 

overcast with low hanging clouds.  While walking with his eye on the horizon 
ahead of him, watching the 

crest of the valley wall, be saw a glowing object drop out of the sky, emerging 
from the clouds and falling, 

it seemed, not too swiftly, and at an angle somewhat approaching the vertical.  
It had a reddish appearance, he 

stated, not unlike a spent ‘Roman Candle,’ becoming less bright as it descended, 
finally becoming entirely 

extinguished as it approached the ground."

Later  the man found a fresh 160 gram chondrite.  The stone had abundant metal 
in it and it was initially mistaken for a mesosiderite.

As for cold meteorites, we can't forget Colby that fell on July 4, 1917 and “the 
man who extracted it from the earth informs me that it was so 

cold that frost immediately formed on its surface when exposed to the air.”

Cheers,

Frank
 

    



________________________________
From: "bernd.pauli at paulinet.de" <bernd.pauli at paulinet.de>
To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Tue, November 23, 2010 1:05:42 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Temperature of meteorites

Good morning Listees, Listoids, Listers,

Here's a copy of something I posted many years ago (maybe 2004).

Cheers,

Bernd

-----------------------------------------------------------


Meteorites - warm or hot to the touch?

01) The Binningup meteorite was recovered within a few minutes
of the fall  and was reported to have been warm to the touch.

02) Cabin Creek: Three hours after the fall, Mr. and Mrs. Shandy were able
to find the hole and excavate the mass, reportedly still uncomfortably warm.

03) Glatton: was warm, not hot, when first picked up.

04) Gurram Konda: near the tent some small warm
stones, which the Sentry has seen falling down.

05) Juromenha: The mass was said to have been incandescent
when  discovered and still warm when recovered next morning

06) L'Aigle: Affrighted persons who picked them up found
the stones to be very warm and smelling of sulfur.

07) Limerick: It was immediately dug up, and I have been informed by those that 
were
present, and on whom I could rely, that it was then warm and had a sulphurous 
smell.

08) Middlesbrough: The stone was "new-milk warm" when found, ...

09) Noblesville: The meteorite was not glowing as it passed the boys and
was "slightly warm" when Spaulding picked it up a few seconds after it fell.

10) Pettiswood: The affrighted horse fell to the Earth, and two boys rushed to 
him in
terror carrying fragments that Bingley found to be warm as milk just from the 
cow.

11) Pontlyfni: When I picked up the fragment of metal, or whatever it is, it was 


warm in my hand.

12) Rowton: It is, moreover, stated that when Mr. Brooks found the mass "it was 
quite warm."

13) Tsukuba: Seconds later student Ryutaro Araki stopped to retrieve
a still-warm stone that had fallen in front of his car near Tsukuba

14) Wold Cottage: Rushing to the spot he found a large
stone, warm and smoking and smelling of sulfur.

15) Crumlin: When dug out the object, which had embedded itself in a 
straightdownward
course for 13 inches, was found to be quite hot, continuing so for about an 
hour.

16) Eichstädt: The man rushed to the spot but found the black
stone too hot to pick up until it cooled in the snow.

17) Hanau: A hot stone the size of a pea was picked up, weight 0.37 gr.

18) Harrogate: A hot stone, like basalt, fell accompanied
by  whistling in the air and lightning and thunder ...

19) Holbrook: One piece larger than an orange fell into a tree in a yard
at Aztec cutting the limb off slick and clean and falling to the ground,
and when picked up was almost red-hot.

Von Achen, who saw them fall, reported that they were too hot to pick
up. Two accounts state that they became lighter in color after cooling.

20) Lucé: several harvesters, startled by sudden thunderclaps and a loud
hissing noise, looked up and saw the stone plunge into a field where they
found it half-buried and too hot to pick up.

21) Magombedze: A 10-cm stone weighing approximately 600 gr
survived the impact intact and was hot to touch.

22) Menziswyl: The farmers say that the stone fell with the lightning and
shattered when it hit the ground; it was hot when they picked it up.

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