[meteorite-list] Meteorite Lands in Tucson

BOORX4 BOORX4 at aol.com
Thu Apr 22 09:38:49 2004 

Hi All,

   One of the local TV stations here in Tucson, AZ gave a report that a 
meteorite landed in the lot of a local RV dealership and was witnessed by a 
customer or employee.  This occurred around 6-8  a.m. He said that he saw a 
bright object land which punched a shallow hole in the ground and bounced 
into a power box.  Photographs were shown of this black rock but the quick 
shots that TV news puts on the screen wasn't long enough to really indentify 
anything.  There wasn't any reference point to indicate its size.  No other 
details were given but I'm sure tomorrow's paper will have more info.  This 
is just a heads up FYI.  It will be interesting to see how this transpires.

Bob in Tucson

[meteorite-list] Meteorite Or Lightning Slag: Tests To Tell

Ron Baalke baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov
Fri Aug 3 12:51:26 2001 

http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0802AZ--Meteorite-ON.html


Meteorite or lightning slag: Tests to tell
Associated Press
August 2, 2001

TUCSON - As rare as it would be, lightning and a meteorite may have struck
the same place at about the same time, a meteorite expert says.

"I'm kind of short-circuiting here," said Tucson's Robert Haag, who has
bought, sold and collected meteorites from all over the world.

Haag had been called to the Beaudry RV Resort on Wednesday to examine a
strange situation.

Neville Proud, the resort's director of operations, pointed out a 2-gallon
hole in the gravel lot, a football-sized rock Proud thought might be a
meteorite and five nearby electrical hookups that had been burned out.

Proud also told Haag about something having lit up the sky Monday or Tuesday
night.

"Seeing the way it was electrically burned, I was thinking it had to be a
big lightning impact," he said. "But then, they handed me some of these
little pieces.

"The big rock that everybody was talking about is definitely not a
meteorite, but this little piece is looking and acting like one, and this
whole thing is getting weirder and weirder," Haag said, referring to an
almond-sized rock he held.

"Here you've got a totally flash-fried little melted rock that sticks to a
magnet, so as far as the preliminary tests, it passes them," he said,
shaking his head.

Jim Strope, a collector from West Virginia in town to trade Martian
meteorites with Haag, said it really looks like a meteorite. He and Michael
Farmer of Tucson had gone to Morocco last month after a meteorite sighting.

"We'd have bought that in Morocco in a minute, we'd have bought a whole pile
of them," Strope said of the rock which so intrigued Haag.

"If it does turn out to be a meteorite, we'll all be down there (at the
Beaudry park) tomorrow," Farmer added.

Haag said he'll take the sample to the University of Arizona's Lunar and
Planetary Laboratory, where geologist David Kring will conduct a series of
tests that will prove whether the rock is a meteorite.

Haag said it and about a dozen smaller pieces may be meteorites or may be
sand and rock that was melted by lightning, known as fulgurites.

"Kring said it's possible the lightning bolt was so big that it actually
magnetized the rocks from 10 million volts or something," Haag said. "But
fulgurites don't usually look like this."

As for the fried electrical hooks that spanned about 250 feet, he added,
"I'm pretty sure" that was lightning.

Global Atmospherics, a local firm that tracks lightning all over the world,
recorded two lightning strikes in the area during a midday storm on Tuesday,
said marketing supervisor Nancy Roth.

"There was definitely lightning in that area between 12 and 1 p.m., and
there were a couple of strikes within about 100 yards of there," she said.

But the big rock is just earthly slag, Haag said, which "may have just
fallen out of somebody's truck last week and nobody noticed it."

[meteorite-list] Meteorite Lands in Tucson

Mike Farmer farmerm at concentric.net
Thu Aug 2 10:27:46 2001 

I was with Bob on this yesterday. It is NOT a meteorite. Most likely a lightning
struck something and melted and scortched some stuff. Again, NO Meteorite fall
in Tucson :(
Mike Farmer
More Info

More information about the Meteorite-list mailing list