(meteorobs) old fireball

[Dave Hostetter]

Thanks, Larry, that's interesting.  It's in keeping with other reports and
supports the conclusion I had that the meteor made it past Louisiana to the
Gulf.  Many thanks for the valuable information!

Dave Hostetter

> -----Original Message-----
> From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On
> Behalf Of lgspe99
> Sent: Friday, February 15, 2013 1:30 PM
> To: Meteor science and meteor observing
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) old fireball
> 
> I was living in New Iberia at that time, was living in a trailer on
Hortense St. I was
> working for Texaco, Inc as a roughneck at that time, my next door neighbor
was an
> Engineer for Texaco. He and I were talking in the front yard when this
bright light came
> over very fast, then in a matter of seconds it seemed like there was a
very loud explosion.
> It was heading south when we saw it. Jerry jumped in his car and went to
the Texaco office
> in New Iberia and started contacting the different Texaco Camps along the
coast by radio.
> When he came back, he said, yes they all saw it said it looked like it hit
the Gulf of Mexico
> some place south of the Louisiana shore line. I had not thought about that
until I read
> where this Meteor had hit in Russia and has been on the news.  Larry G.
Smith P.E.
> 
> --- In meteorobs at yahoogroups.com, "Dave Hostetter" <dehostetter at ...>
wrote:
> >
> > I had an interesting conversation about a meteor with a visitor to my
> > planetarium yesterday.  As background, there was a tremendous meteor
> > visible in the southeastern USA on the evening of March 15, 1957.
> > I've seen many reports from Alabama to Louisiana along with some from
> > surrounding states (the local newspaper articles make interesting
> > reading and are probably in local libraries along the path).  It was
> > so bright that we regularly get questions about it even now, from
> > people who saw it or who remember hearing their parents talk about it.
> > In fact, we get so many questions that when we revamped our meteorite
> > and tektite exhibit recently, we included a panel about it.  It draws a
lot of comment
> from people who saw the fireball.
> >
> > The man I talked with thought he had meteorites from the event.  He
> > had been a teenager in a school science club at the time, and a local
> > farmer had called the science club the next day to report seeing rocks
> > falling all around him...did the club want them?  The club members
> > went out and collected dozens of them, and my friend still had his
> > after more than 50 years!  Unfortunately they turned out to be slag,
> > but his description of the meteor was good.
> >
> > This guy is an accomplished local amateur astronomer and life-long
> > science lover, and I think he could give me an accurate report.
> >
> > He described the fireball as much brighter than the moon, lighting the
> > ground almost like daylight only bluer.  He and his parents watched
> > the event from their car, stopped at a stop sign in town.  He
> > estimated the apparent size of the head of the meteor as slightly
> > greater than the width of a thumb at arm's length, and watched as the
> > shape changed from nearly round to something like a stretched
> > teardrop.  He saw bright "chunks" coming off like sparks.  He described
both a sizzling
> sound and a shock wave boom.
> > The boom came a couple seconds after the meteor but the sizzling sound
> > was simultaneous with it, so seems to have been electrophonic.  I
> > questioned him carefully about that, and he was quite sure of it
> > although he had never heard of the possibility of electrophonic sounds.
> >
> > After the meteor, his family drove home, which was essentially around
> > a short block.  They got out of the car, and as they went up the steps
> > to their porch they felt the ground shake.  He was quite specific that
> > this was a seismic event rather than an airborne shock wave because
> > they had already heard that and because this shaking was silent.
> > That's the part that I found really interesting, and a detail I had
> > not previously heard.  I drove from the intersection where they saw
> > the meteor around the block to his old house, and it took about a
> > minute.  Throw in some time to get over their surprise after seeing
> > the meteor and time to get out of the car and cross their yard, and I
> > figure that seismic event was about 1 to 3 minutes after the fireball.
> > There was a seismic event recorded about 50 miles south that may or
> > may not have been related to the fireball (which, based on other
> > reports, had to go out over the Gulf of Mexico), but I've got no other
> > reports of anyone feeling anything in the distance between.  I have to
> > wonder if the ground shake might have been something else.  One to three
minutes seems
> like a LONG time under the circumstances.
> >
> > Anyway, it was an interesting conversation about a long ago event, but
> > I thought some of you might like to hear about it.
> >
> > Dave Hostetter
> > New Iberia, LA
> >
> >
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> 
> 
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