Message-Id: <v01540b1daede1b8663b4@[192.174.2.173]>
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 14:08:09 -0800
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: pauld@exploratorium.edu (Paul Doherty)
Subject: honduras meteorite crater
I found this interesting tidbit on the news.
Paul D
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- A meteorite slammed into a sparsely
populated area of Honduras last month, terrifying residents and leaving
a 165-foot-wide crater, scientists confirmed Sunday.
Villagers reported seeing a fireball crash and break into small red and
yellow pieces on Nov. 22 near San Luis, in the western province of Santa
Barbara. But Sunday's statement was the first official word that the
object was a meteorite.
Maria Cristina Pineda, a physicist from the National Autonomous
University of Honduras, said Sunday that the meteorite was composed of
materials that were 4 billion years old, Pineda said.
There was no word on the dimensions of the meteorite, but it was much
smaller than the size of the crater. Some 50,000 years ago, a meteorite
180 feet wide smashed into northern Arizona and dug a crater 4,000 feet
wide. And a 300-foot meteorite struck in Siberia in 1908, leveling trees
for miles.
Residents of San Luis, 125 miles west of the capital, were terrified by
the meteorite's crash, which sparked a fire that destroyed several acres
of coffee plants and damaged a main highway.
"We saw a large ball of fire, with a long tail that rapidly descended
from the sky and fell near San Luis, before our incredulous eyes," said
Elmer Adan Rivera, a teacher from the region.
"I arrived almost immediately to the site of the explosion," said
peasant Francisco Aguilar Sabillon. "There were enormous flames, and
everything was destroyed. Because of that I fled from the place,
frightened."
Authorities have asked those living nearby to stay away from the crash
site. The meteorite did not appear to have any properties that would
pose a threat to humans, they said.