2012 Blog » Meteorites

Safety from Meteorites / New SuperVolcano?

Robert Bast — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 03:15:25 +0000

Models that have looked into the effects of a major meteorite impact have, until now, used a featuresless perfect sphere to represent Earth. A new model that incorporates the surface features of our planet has found:

…that the seismic waves resulting from the impact would have been scattered and unfocused, causing less severe ground displacement, tsunamis, and seismic and volcanic activity than previously thought.

So instead of the ripples in a swimming pool being quite uniform, we have ripples in say a small river, with some ducks, a fallen tree, and a pile of mud getting in the way. This means that there will be some areas, even reasonably close to the impact, that will survive intact. If there is ever going to be advanced warning of a large impact, such a model might be able to help humans choose the safest places to hide.

Uturuncu is an ancient volcano in southwest Bolivia. It last erupted 300,000 years ago, and that eruption does not classify it as a supervolcano. However, lately it is been giving indications that it could be a supervolcano in the making:

So far, they know the inflation is surprisingly fast: the center of the patch has risen 7.9 inches (20 centimeters) in the past 20 years. What is more, the uplift extends about 43 miles (70 kilometers) across — similar in size to the caldera that formed in the wake of the latest eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano, which blanketed half of the U.S. in ash 640,000 years ago.

…Uturunca could be drawing magma from a dense swarm of nearby volcanoes, many of which are currently active.

The risk it currently presents depends on how long it has been inflating for, and satellite data only goes back 20 years. The investigating geologists say the expansion probably started only recently, and so the magma chamber probably has not yet grown to supervolcanic proportions, but also note that their initial conclusions are far from definitive.

Safety from Meteorites / New SuperVolcano? is a post from: 2012 Blog

Meteor Carving, Circa 3000BC

Robert Bast — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:41:25 +0000

Many independent researchers believe that something must of occurred in 3114BC to trigger the start of the Mayan Long Count calendar – and therefore any information about events from 5,000 years ago catch my eye – like this one:

A 5,000-year old rock carving in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region depicts a falling meteor, said archaeologists on Saturday.

A rock on the side of Dahei Mountain in the city of Chifeng has images of people, domed houses and a fire ball with a long tail falling from the sky engraved on it, said Wu Jiacai, head of the Inner Mongolia rock paintings protection association.

It’s a shame that news reports from China don’t usually come with images… I guess that the meteor could just as easily be a comet?

Meteor Carving, Circa 3000BC is a post from: 2012 Blog

DNA Comes From Outer Space

Robert Bast — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:26:17 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I’m a fan of panspermia, particularly the idea the mushroom spores traveled to Earth and gave humans a little extra something. The concept was given a real boost this week with news that components of DNA, nucleobases, have been found in meteorites:

In laboratory experiments, Callahan and colleagues showed how the nucleobases could have formed inside meteorites. Simple chemical reactions involving ammonia, water and hydrogen cyanide — all ingredients found in meteorites — produced the wide range of nucleobases the scientists found in the space rocks.

…Scientists have also found other building blocks of life — most notably amino acids, the links that form proteins — inside meteorites.

While Bernstein said that it’s impossible to discern whether the first life on Earth was built on chemicals that fell from the sky, that possibility is now stronger. “These molecules are at the core of [life’s] blueprints,” Bernstein said of the nucleobases. “It’s possible that the presence of these molecules in meteorites made us what we are today.” [Source: Washington Post]

The other possibility is that those ingredients helped life form elsewhere in the universe, and that life itself arrived on Earth, rather than forming in the primordial soup. As time goes on, evidence (and theories from the likes of Mike Baillee) is growing, and it seems certain that past humans have been affected by bombardments from space. Which means comets, meteorites, dust, red rain, or even mushrooms from space will return one day…

DNA Comes From Outer Space is a post from: 2012 Blog

Rapid Magnetic Changes / Houston Dome / Another Tunguska

Robert Bast — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:07:37 +0000

“a new study of ancient copper mines in southern Israel found that the strength of the magnetic field could double and then fall back down in less than 20 years.” This could be local, or global, they don’t seem sure. But it is certainly something scientists previously did not believe possible.

Why build bunkers when you can protect an entire city with a massive dome?

The concept would supposedly keep the city safe from a category-5 hurricane.

Tunguska was not the only explosion of its type last century – there’s actually a list of them at Wikipedia. A good candidate to add to that list is a powerful blast that struck British Guyana in 1935. An expedition “reported seeing an area some miles across where the trees had been broken off about 25 feet above their bases“, while numerous people witnessed a “large meteoroid/small asteroid entry“. One day a town or city will be the victim, and we can’t stop it. Hopefully 2012 will not be a time where these events become commonplace.

Rapid Magnetic Changes / Houston Dome / Another Tunguska is a post from: 2012 Blog

Meteoroid Tracking / New 2012 Drink / Missing Sunspots

Robert Bast — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 11:41:12 +0000

NASA is installing a network of smart cameras across the USA to track fireballs and meteoroids. Soon there will be 15, and then they plan to expand nationwide. These cameras are automated and linked together so that they can triangulate paths and orbits. If NASA was expecting an influx of fireballs (and alternative media outlets are suggesting this is already happening), such data could prove to be important. But it could just be that NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is wanting to he more helpful when they get phone calls from the public. More info at PhysOrg, and the official NASA site has live and historical images from the cameras.

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According to the website of Australia’s antidote to “energy drinks”, esc, if you are concerned about 2012, their drink will let you Escape into a zen state of mind!

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The latest in a long line of solar cycle theories has just been published in Nature. NASA have summarised the findings. While it seems to account for the last minimum, I figure it will take accurate predictions for the next few cycles to be proven – and they don’t seem to have even made any predictions about the next maximum.

Meteoroid Tracking / New 2012 Drink / Missing Sunspots is a post from: 2012 Blog

Noah’s Ark / Facebook Game / Bolide Data

Robert Bast — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 07:12:45 +0000

With state-funding, a Christian ministry will build a $150 million theme park, featuring a full-size Noah’s Ark, complete with live animals. There will also be a Tower of Babel. Can’t wait to take my family, and it is aiming to open in 2014.

Those 500 million Facebook users now have access to a game all about 2012 – War of 2012. After a magnetic pole shift and solar flares, you are a member of “a tribe that happened to survive the pandemonium aboard the Genesis Ark“. Apart from the back story and the name, it is yet another Civilization clone… Far more interesting would be a prepping game where you have 2012-like deadline to prepare.

Tunguska-like atmospheric explosions occur several times a year, and we know this because NASA satellites spot them. Data on these “bolide” will soon be released so that scientists worldwide can better study them.

Noah’s Ark / Facebook Game / Bolide Data is a post from: 2012 Blog

Meteorite Strikes Central Java Home

Robert Bast — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:17:28 +0000

Seems like Indonesia has become a meteorite magnet of late. The most recent:

The blast was reported to have damaged the roof, kitchen and dining room in the home of Suryono in Ngringo village, but no injuries were reported. State news agency Antara reported that the impact produced a loud bang and shattered several windows in the house. The heat generated from the blast reportedly melted several plastic objects in the kitchen and left the metal tableware hot.

Last April three Indonesian homes were damaged by what was presumed to be a meteorite, and last year the shock waves from a meteorite explosion also damaged homes in South Sulawesi, and a young girl there died of a heart attack.

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Meanwhile, in the USA, a Tennessee man missed being hit by a meteorite by just 10 feet.

Meteorite Strikes Central Java Home is a post from: 2012 Blog

Meteorite Strikes Colombia – Ignored by Media

Robert Bast — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:17:43 +0000

It’s strange when you closely follow a topic, and and you only hear about a news item via an article claiming the media ignored it. But it isn’t unusual, take Project Censored for example, who inform us about such 201o stories as Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina and US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s, that you just didn’t hear about via mainstream media.

So, apparently a meteorite crashed into Colombia on September 6:

The Colombian media has been buzzing with eye witness accounts of the fireball, which caused a massive explosion at 3:15PM local time Sunday.

Andina.com reported that Bucaramanga Mayor Fernando Vargas confirmed that the phenomenon was a meteorite that left a crater 100 meters in diameter when it crashed into the earth in the San Joaquin municipality in Santander.

Colombian air force helicopters were commissioned to fly over the area to try to locate the source of the explosion.

The director of the University of Nariño’s Astronomic Observatory, Alberto Quijano, told RCN Radio Sunday that he believed the object was a meteorite.

In rural areas of Santander, police received reports that the explosion had shattered windows in the area.

How on earth can a 100 metre crater not be newsworthy? Now here’s where it gets more interesting – at the same time a pair of asteroids were passing close by Earth, and we were told by NASA that we were safe:

“Both asteroids should be observable near closest approach to Earth with moderate-sized amateur telescopes,” NASA officials said in a statement. “Neither of these objects has a chance of hitting Earth.”

The larger of the two space rocks, asteroid 2010 RX30, will fly by Earth first at about 5:51 a.m. EDT (0951 GMT). It is estimated to be about 33 to 65 feet wide (10 to 20 meters) and will pass within 154,000 miles (248,000 km) of the planet. On average, the moon is about roughly 238,900 miles (384,402 km) from Earth.

The second asteroid is relatively small. Called 2010 RF12, it is estimated to be 20 to 46 feet wide (6 to 14 meters) and will pass within 49,000 miles (79,000 km) a few hours later at 5:12 pm EDT (2112 GMT), NASA asteroid trackers have said.

Found here, with videos

Meteorite Strikes Colombia – Ignored by Media is a post from: 2012 Blog

Ohio Man Also Hit by Meteorite?

Robert Bast — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:44:04 +0000

Following on from the man watching the cricket last week, if this in in fact a meteorite, then perhaps, just perhaps, we are seeing a rise in such phenomena…

An Ohio man claims he was hit in the shoulder by a chunk of meteorite falling from the sky Sunday night.
“I didn’t know what it was,” Pat Foraker said. “I thought somebody was playing a prank on me and threw something at me.”

“Hit me right here, I heard it,” he said. “It was like a whistling noise. It thumped my shoulder and landed in the swimming pool.”
The rock sliced the skin on Foraker’s shoulder, and was still warm when he plucked it out of the pool.
Geologists at Ohio State University will examine the rock, but believe it’s likely a meteorite.

Despite what the news report says, if you watch the video the University experts do not think it is a meteorite. Perhaps because they think a meteorite would cause more harm?

Ohio Man Also Hit by Meteorite? is a post from: 2012 Blog

Bosnian House is Meteorite Magnet

Robert Bast — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:11:51 +0000

This, if true (and it appears to be), is the most extraordinary meteorite story I have ever come across.

Since 2007, the home of Bosnian man Radivoke Lajic has been struck by meteorites on SIX different occasions. According to the Telegraph, scientists from Belgrade University have validated the claims, and they are investigating possible magnetic field anomalies.

Despite having to reinforce his roof with steel, Radivoke has a marvellous attitude, and does not seem to be paranoid (I think I would be!):

“But these meteorites have brought happiness to our family as well, as we’ve met different people from around the world that were interested in it,” he said. ”And I have had so many visitors that I plan to make a small museum in my back garden.”

Bosnian House is Meteorite Magnet is a post from: 2012 Blog