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(meteorobs) Re: Greenland meteorite impact...more

Here is more about that possible meteorite impact in Greenland  posted on aol
today.
George Zay
-----------------

>>Subj:  Re:Impact in Greenland?
Date:  97-12-13 17:08:19 EST
From:  DFranck         

Here is more info on the possible strike........  


QAQORTOQ METEORITE FALL, GREENLAND

It appears that an enormous meteorite has fallen over the southern part of
the Greenland Ice cap. The event was witnessed by people on the west coast
of Greenland, and by fishermen off shore. Further records come from
seismic data, weather satellites, and a video camera at Nuuk.

The event occurred on December 9, at 08:21 UTC. At this moment, local
solar time was 05:21 A.M. According to reports, the sky was clear.

SEISMIC DATA

Seismic records show a very special event. It lasts more than 10 seconds,
indicating a time extended source. It is a high-frequency event, reminiscent
of the Lunar meteorite seismic records made by the Apollo missions. This
makes phase correlation, hence localization, difficult, but initial
indication is that the event occurred in Greenland.

VIDEO

A parking lot video surveillence camera in Nuuk, capital of Greenland (64
North, 51 West), recorded an extremely bright flash of light from a moving
source. One the footage shown on Danish TV, the event lasted about 2
seconds. However, the time compression factor was not reported.

WEATHER SATELLITE IMAGING

At least two weather satellites show the dramatic development of a cloud
system near 63 degrees North 45 degrees West. The clearest images can be
obtained from a polar orbiting satellite monitored at the Dundee Satellite
Receiving station. One set of multicolor images show a dark cloud 120 km
across, on December 9 14:24 UTC Channel 3 The cloud is still visible 26
hours later, at which moment one can see a 100 km long dark line on the 
Ice Cap, marking the western edge of the cloud. The line points some 10
degrees West of North, which we interpret as the arrival direction of the
meteoroid.
The cloud height has been estimated by the Tycho Brahe Planetarium to be 6
- 8 km (based on the shadow cast). The enclosed volume of air is thus at
least 50,000 cubic km. If the moist air contains 0.1 gram of water per
litre derived either from the meteoroid or from evaporating ice, this
amounts to 5 billion tons. The minimum meteorite mass required to melt and
evaporate this amount of water is 4 million tons, if the velocity of the
impactor was 70 km per second.

SEARCH PARTY

According to Danish TV (DR1 and TV2 text-tv), a search mission is being
planned by the ice service at Narssaq.

THE NAME

Old tradition dictates that a fall is named from the closest postal 
office.This is Qaqortoq, at the south tip of Greenland. The city was formerly
called Julianehaab.

The above report was compiled using data supplied by Morten Bo Madsen,
Anja Andersen, Torben Risbo, and Lars Lindberg Christensen.
For further information, call or write: Holger Pedersen
NBIfAFG
Copenhagen University Observatory
Juliane Maries Vej 30
DK-2100 Copenhagen OE
Denmark
e-mail holger@astro.ku.dk
http://www.astro.ku.dk/~holger/
phone (45) 3532 5980 To the top
Last revision: December 13, 1997
Note: information contained here is not an official product of Copenhagen
University.<<
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