(meteorobs) Fw: Possible meteorite

[Swift, Wesley]

I concurr:  not a meteor.

	Another theory is that she saw a fish fingerling school escaping
from a predator.  I have seen it and it looks and moves like she described.
It is also transient in that many fish don't school when larger and really
small fish stay in the shallows.

Just a thought.

Wes

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Jim Pettit
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 2:04 PM
To: 'Global Meteor Observing Forum'
Subject: RE: (meteorobs) Fw: Possible meteorite

My HIGHLY uneducated guess would be that what Ms. Johnstone witnessed was an
instance of lake degassing, wherein buildup of methane (a byproduct of the
decomposition of organic matter) and/or CO2 reaches a certain pressure
point, allowing the gas(es) to be spontaneously released en masse from
lake-bottom sediment. (Such an event occurred on a much larger scale in 1986
on Cameroon's Lake Nyos, killing over 1700 people.) While not dismissing her
meteorite theory outright, it seems to me that roiling water would be one of
the lesser meteorite-strike-related phenomena she would've witnessed and
remembered had she had the (mis)fortune to be so close to a falling chunk of
asteroid.

Either that, or she saw the tell-tale signs of an American Loch
Ness(Townline) monster. ;-)

--Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Robert Lunsford
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 11:05 AM
To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
Subject: (meteorobs) Fw: Possible meteorite

Here is an interesting note sent to the American Meteor Society. I could
have dismissed this story outright but I felt others had the right to
express their views. I'll share any of your comments with Linda.

Thanks!

Bob

----- Original Message -----
Subject: Possible meteorite


I am not sure if what I witnessed was a meteorite or something else. 
Perhaps your insight and knowledge of meteorites will help answer my
question.

In 1952, when I was 8 years old, my family lived in a house on a hill
overlooking Townline Lake in Lakeview, Michigan.  I was sitting on the
screened porch when I heard a loud splash.  When I looked up, I saw a large
round area of the lake boiling.  I was frozen with fascination.  The boiling

area looked to be perfectly round.  It was approximately 50-75 yards from
shore ( it's hard to judge distance across the water) and the round boiling
area was approximately 30-40 feet wide.  The boiling circle drifted to the
left about 20-30 feet from where it had begun as if something was drifting
down to the bottom of the lake at an angle.  After watching it for several
minutes, the boiling slowly stopped.  After the boiling had stopped, I ran
to tell my mother about it.  Of course she didn't see anything since the
boiling had already stopped, but I think she did believe me since I was not
one to make things up.

Would a meteorite cause water to boil like that if it fell into a lake? 
Would it have cooled off enough to stop the water from boiling in only a few

minutes?  Would a meteorite cause the water to boil in a perfectly round
pattern?  Could a meteorite hitting earth be that large and not cause any
destruction if it fell into a lake?  I have always wondered what it might
have been, and now, 52 years later, I remember the incident like it was only

yesterday and am still perplexed by the incident.

Any information you might be able to shed on the subject would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Linda Johnstone


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