(meteorobs) Fw: Possible meteorite

[Dan Wright]

I have read with interest the hypotheses put forward to explain the 1952 
event in Lakeview, Michigan, witnessed by a then eight-year-old girl. There 
appears to be universal agreement among the respondants that an object 
causing a 30-40-foot bubbling of the lake surface would not be a meteorite, 
that a meteor anywhere near those proportions would cause widespread 
destruction.

Without specifics on the composition of the lakebed or whether that lake was 
even stocked with fish, the notions of either "lake degassing" via 
sudden-CO2-release or the inexplicable excitement of a school of fish are, 
of course, simply speculations not intended to be followed up. One might 
argue that if either of those were the correct resolution, a family member 
or other lakeside resident might well have told the girl that such a sight 
had been witnessed before.

There is another possibility, which in this case might be more plausible 
than anything derived from the annals of weird science. The year 1952 
happened to include the most dramatic and persistent appearances of UFOs in 
U.S. history. Numerous military documents, since acquired via the Freedom of 
Information Act, reported pilot chases, uncorrelated radar targets and 
repeated intrusions of airspace around the nation's Capitol. That July UFO 
headlines even pushed Adlai Stevenson's nomination for the presidency off 
the front page. Literally thousands of everyday people around the country 
reported seeing disc-shaped objects as well as huge airborne cylinders close 
at hand that year. This continuous influx of reports led the CIA to convene 
a secret panel in 1953 which concluded that the populace should not be told 
of the government's concerns about unidentified flying objects for fear of 
panic. These are not speculations; these are verified facts.

Noteworthy in Linda Johnstone's letter to AMS was her description of a 
sudden loud splash that initially drew her attention to the lake, a perfect 
circle formed by the bubbling surface water, and its slow movement to one 
side suggesting that whatever entered the water had drifted in that 
direction below the surface.

FYI, literally hundreds of eyewitnesses are on record as observing metallic 
disc-type vehicles entering lakes and ocean water, many of whom further 
described a bubbling on the surface presumably related to heat generated by 
the saucer's exterior. Many of those persons further witnessed the 
reappearance of the disc as it emerged from underwater and flew out of 
sight.

Before you dismiss the UFO hypothesis as merely folklore, please ask 
yourself whether it is more plausible that every one of those 
close-encounter witnesses was lying or deluded yet happened to describe 
their sightings essentially the same.

Thanks to Meteorobs for your indulgence in this matter. Your site provides a 
valuable service to civilian UFO investigators and researchers -- whose 
obligation is to consider every mundane possibility before rendering an 
incident unexplained.

Dan Wright
Mutual UFO Network, Inc.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <GeoZay at aol.com>
To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 5:41 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Fw: Possible meteorite




GeoZay at aol.com  wrote:
<Snipola>
> This sounds like it could be a sudden release  of Carbon Dioxide. 
> Something

> similar, but much larger has  occurred at least a couple times in Cameroon
back
> in the 80's I  believe it was? That incident killed a lot of people and 
> <<
<Snipola>

Brian>>Just wanted  to delurk for a moment to say I agree that it is
extremely unlikely to be a  meteor.

However, I don't think it's CO2 gas either. There would have to  be
a source of CO2 gas (usually volcanic) and the lake would have to
be  deep enough to 'cork' the bottle with hydrostatic weight. For
specifcs please  see this webpage about the Lake Nyos disaster  at:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/mhalb/nyos/

I find the methane gas release  or the fish school idea plausible.<<

Okay Brian...I  looked over the website you  provided and I gather you agree
with me about the disaster in Cameroon being CO2  gas, but the incident in
michigan perhaps being methane gas or school of fish? A  reasonable
possibility....perhaps a better possibility than the CO2  gas?
GeoZay

Overview from the website
In 1986, a tremendous explosion of CO2 from the lake  Nyos, West of 
Cameroon,
killed more than 1700 people and livestock up to 25 km  away. The dissolved
CO2 is seeping from springs beneath the lake and is  trapped in deep water 
by
the high hydrostatic pressure. If the CO2 saturation  level is reached, 
bubbles
appear and draw a rich mixture of gas and water up.  An avalanche process is
triggered which results in an explosive over-turn of  the whole lake. Since
1990 a French team has carried out a series of tests in  an attempt to 
release
the gas slowly through vertical pipes  …





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