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Meteorite crashes in Monahans: The Monahans Police Department has temporary custody of a meteorite fragment that struck the ground in a small housing development in the northern part of that city, Sunday. The meteorite shown brightly as it arced across the Permian Basin, between 6:45 and 7 p.m. Sunday. |
Meteorite crashes in Monahans
By Gary Shanks
Staff Writer Midland Reporter TelegramThe Monahans Police Department has temporary custody of a meteorite fragment that struck the ground in a small housing development in the northern part of that city, Sunday.
The meteorite shown brightly as it arced across the Permian Basin, between 6:45 and 7 p.m. Sunday, sparking numbers of calls to the Midland and Ector County sheriff's offices as well as the Monahans Police Department.
From Midland, the meteorite could be seen burning brilliantly high in the sky, even though there was still sunlight and blue sky. The meteorite left a smoke trail pointing west, according to reported sightings.
An astronomer at the McDonald Observatory theorized that the meteorite could have contained copper among its metallic ores, explaining the greenish tint to its glow as it passed over Midland.
The meteorite continued on this path for a few seconds before exploding into several small, white-hot fragments which quickly vanished, according to a local eye witness to the event.
In Monahans, a group of youths were playing basketball when a chunk of this meteorite landed with a thud, causing the youths to investigate, according to Allen Martin, news director for the KLBO Radio station, which is located near to the site of the meteorite fragment.
Monahans residents who witnessed the meteorite's passage through the sky reported a "boom" as well as the bright light, Martin said.
The fragment was burned black and had a texture like chipped concrete, although it was reportedly "very dense," Martin said. "It was charred black as night," he added.
The oddly-shaped meteorite was eight to nine inches in length, about four inches wide and about two inches thick and weighed about five pounds, Martin said.
It struck the ground within 50 feet of five homes, Martin said. "It landed right in the middle of them," he said.
While still warm when it was found, several people hefted the fragment before Monahans police suggested that testing it for radioactivity might be wise, Martin said.
The fragment is being kept at the police department today. People were still milling about the site late into the evening, he said. "It has stirred up quite a bit of excitement for around here," Martin said.
By Mary Agnes Welch
Odessa American
MONAHANS -- Barely two weeks after a well-publicized scare about an impending collision between the Earth and an asteroid, and a few miles from where the real thing happened 25,000 years ago, residents in Monahans Sunday may have had a close call of their own.
A four-inch piece of rock, believed to be a meteorite, landed about 30 yards from a group of youngsters playing basketball.
"We were just very lucky that we didn't get somebody hurt," said Monahans Police Sgt. Reggie Bailey, who was the first police officer on the scene. "I just got to thinking that a piece of rock that big didn't ever hit the ground."
At about 7 p.m., about a dozen youngsters were playing basketball next to a vacant lot on the north side of Monahans where the Coke-can sized rock landed.
They said they heard a loud, five-second boom from the northeast.
"I was about to dunk when I heard the boom," said 10-year-old Eron Hernandez. "I thought I busted the ball."
Flavio Armendariz, 9, was one of the ballplayers who saw the object hit. "When we heard the noise and saw it, it gave us a little alarm."
The rock left a cloud of dust after it landed, and the children ran over and picked it up. It was warm to the touch, they said.
Javier Juarez, 9, said he was excited and scared. "I was both of them. I threw my hat on the ground because I was happy."
The boom was heard throughout West Texas, including Crane, Midland and Odessa.
Raymond Garcia, who lives 10 blocks from where the meteorite landed, said he said he heard the sound and drove over to see what was going on.
"I was watering my yard. Then I turned to see a white line like smoke coming down. I thought it was a plane that busted because there's a flight line here."
The object, which is black on the outside and cement gray where it was chipped, is about the size of a man's hand and is shaped like a foot.
The children took the object to Javier's father, Mario Juarez, who said it was warm to the touch. Juarez called the news media, which alerted the Monahans Police Department.
The MPD took radiation readings before determining that it was safe to move the rock,®MDNM¯ which will be locked up until city officials wi
By Kim Smith
Odessa American
The object that fell out of the evening sky in Monahans Sunday night certainly wasn't as noteworthy as the one many believe wiped out the dinosaurs, but area geologists still are excited about the event.
"If (a meteorite) has fallen there, I wish I could get a hunk of it. They are very expensive," said geologist Paul Lewis. "Museums will (pay a great deal for them) because they are something from out of this world."
They are also of great scientific interest, Lewis said.
Lewis and fellow geologist Woody Erskine said tests would have to be performed before anyone could say whether it is indeed a meteorite.
"Nearly every year there is a report or two, but mostly they are sightings of the flaming phenomenon," Erskine said. "It's pretty rare to find the material when it lands on the Earth."
When a meteorite enters the Earth's atmosphere, friction causes it to incinerate, typically leaving a fiery trail in its wake.
"By the time they reach the surface of the Earth they are about 200 degrees, but they cool very rapidly," Erskine said.
There are two types of meteorites, Erskine said. One is comprised of nickel and iron and the other is made up of other types of minerals.
From the description given of the object found Sunday, Erskine said it sounds like the object might be a nickel and iron meteorite.
According to the World Book Encyclopedia, meteorites sometimes explode into fragments, creating a loud noise, much like a sonic boom.
Erskine said he heard what sounded like an explosion from his Midland home around the same time the object slammed to earth in Monahans.
In 1908, the famous Tunguska meteorite is believed to have exploded over a remote area in Siberia. People hundreds of miles away saw it in full daylight.
The concussion from the explosion was felt at a distance of 50 miles.
The meteorite had a weight estimated at a few hundred tons. It scorched a 20-mile area and flattened forests, according to the World Book Encyclopedia.
Another famous meteorite created Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, Lewis said. Scientists believe that when it fell it was the size of a small car. Jane Rigby, a Penn State undergraduate who is currently working at McDonald Observatory in the Fort Davis Mountains, said she received a call about a "flash of light" Sunday night.
Rigby said she didn't see the object because she was inside at the time.
The origin of meteorites is unknown, Lewis said. However, some surmise that they come from an asteroid belt that was created when a planet located between Mars and Jupiter was destroyed.
Studies show that meteorites are roughly the same age at the Earth, 4.5 to 5 billion years old, Lewis said.
While Lewis and Erskine are prepared to believe the object is a meteorite, University of Texas of the Permian Basin geology professor Emilio Mutis said he has doubts.
If the object were a meteorite, he said, it would have buried itself deep in the ground with an impact that would have created a large crater, he said.
It also would have been extremely hot, perhaps more than a 1,000 degrees, Mutis said.
"It sounds to me like something is wrong somewhere," Mutis said.
Odessa's meteor crater was discovered by a local rancher in 1892.
Originally, the depression was believed to have been caused by an explosion of gas trapped below the surface.
However, a University of Texas scholar identified the concavity as a meteor crater in the 1920s.
Scientists believe the crater was created 25,000 years ago by the impact of a meteor 100 feet in diameter, weighing 600 tons and traveling 36,000 miles per hour.
The crater was originally 100 feet deep and 600 feet in diameter, but over the millenia sand and dirt eventually filled in most of it.
By Mary Agnes Welch
Odessa American
MONAHANS -- The day after a rock the size of a grapefruit crashed to the ground near a group of children on Sunday evening, Monahans police found what they believe is a second meteorite.
The first "meteorite" landed in a vacant lot in north Monahans about 30 feet from where a group of boys were playing basketball.
The impact, at around 7 p.m., was preceded by a loud boom that was heard in many parts of West Texas, including Odessa, Midland and Crane.
Witnesses also said they saw an object streak across the sky prior to the noise.®MDNM¯ Some said the object split in two as it descended from the northeast.
Jim Cothern of Odessa was walking his dog down Lyndale Drive when he saw the flash. He said he continued walking for about two minutes before hearing the sonic boom, which he described as being as loud as a nearby rifle shot.
"What had hit my mind was that it might be space junk," said Cothern.
The second, larger rock was found about 800 feet south of the first, and it created an indentation in the pavement, said Monahans Police Captain Dave Watts.
"It went down to the caliche," said Watts of the black, block-shaped rock that weighed two pounds 15 ounces "It looked almost like the pavement had been reheated."
Both rocks were being kept at the Monahans Police Department. Officials say they plan to send the rocks to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for analysis.
After hearing a description of the rock, Carleton Moore, the director of the Center for Meteoric Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, said it was consistent with a typical iron ore meteorite, called an ordinary chondrite, likely from the asteroid belt.
Though West Texas isn't normally considered to be a meteor magnet, a huge iron ore meteorite, weighing roughly 45 pounds, was found near Monahans in 1938.
"Usually when a meteorite like that comes in it breaks up, even though it's a really hard rock," said Moore. "I'd look for more."
Moore also suggested testing the rock with a household refrigerator magnet, since most iron ore meteorites attract magnets.
Moore, who estimates the rock to be worth $1,000 or more, said the issue of ownership is a thorny one, especially if someone finds the meteorite on another's property.
Both meteorites landed on city owned property, according to Watts.
Watts said the families of the children who found the rock have expressed a desire to see their find put on display.
Residents across the area reported hearing a `boom' which
lasted for about five seconds, and others saw a streak of
light travel from southeast to northwest about 7 p.m. Sunday.
A four-inch piece of rock, believed to be a meteorite,
landed about 30 yards from a group of youngsters playing
basketball on the north side of Monahans, while a second,
slightly larger rock, was found by a Ward County Sheriff's
Deputy at a nearby site this morning.
The first rock was brought into the police station shortly
after it was discovered. "We still have it here at the
police department, and it has been tested for radiation,"
Monahans Police Captain Dave Watts said this morning.
Watts said the department was called out to the scene after
a group of youngsters reported something falling from the
sky.
At 7 p.m., about a dozen youngsters were playing basketball
next to a vacant lot on the north side of Monahans where the
rock landed. One of the youths, ranging in age from 8 to 16,
said the rock "glowed red hot," when it first landed,
according to the Monahans News.
The rock was lighter in color than most of the nickel-based
meteor fragments discovered over the years, and was about
the size of a large fist, the News reported.
"Right now, we don't know what we're going to do with it,
but the Smithsonian Institute has contacted us," said Watts.
The second rock was found this morning by a deputy driving
to the location of the first one.
"It matches the first one in description, the color and
everything else," said Watts.
The second rock was found about 800 feet, embedded in the
roadway. "It's a little big larger than the first one, but
other than that, it looks about the same," said Watts.
The deputy was driving to the location of the first one,
when he spotted it, recovered it and took it in to the
police department, according to Watts.
"It made a pretty good imprint in the asphalt," he said.
He added that the second rock has not yet been tested for
any signs of radiation.
A woman who answered the phone at the Monahans Police
Department, but declined to give her name, said the rock was
about 3 inches wide. Monahans radio station KLBO reported
the charred rock was about 9 inches long and landed about 50
feet from five homes.
Monahans' meteor fragments arrived at a time when the
subject has been a hot item in the news. A motion picture
about an asteroid striking the Earth is due out later this
year, and earlier this month reports went out world-wide
that a `killer asteroid' was on a possible collision course
with the Earth in the year 2028. The report was retracted a
day later after further calculations were made.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
These rocks are actually not that valuable except for
scientific purposes, according to Watts.
"Dr. Gibson told us that had we waited to have these rocks
tested, another 72 or 96 hours, they wouldn't be able to
obtain much information from them," said Watts.
The freshness of the rocks, since they had just fallen from
the sky and were discovered immediately, is what prompted
the scientists to want to examine them more closely,
according to Watts.
"He said since they were so fresh we could get more
information from them," Watts said.
According to Gibson, both rocks could be valued up to
$5,000, but are more valuable to science.
"Right now, what we're looking at is the scientific angle of
it, not the monetary one," said Watts.
The rocks will be called Monahans 1998. "This is what they
said the rocks will be called, since there are some called,
Monahans 1938,'" said Watts.
In 1938 a meteor fell to the ground and landed just inside
the Monahans city limits. "That one was a much bigger one,"
said Watts.
Watts stated that Gibson had told him that the 1938 rock had
been cut up and distributed to many varied locations. "But
that rock weighed 66 pounds and it wasn't discovered
immediately, for all they knew it had been laying there for
years," said Watts.
"This one discovored this year was a fresh one," said Watts.
"I just know that Monahans will be remembered this year," he
said.
What they heard, they reported, sounded like a sonic boom or
multiple sonic booms. Some said there were one or two
reported flashes of light aloft. At least one child thought
he saw a mini-vapor trail that looked like it came from a
toy jetliner.
What they heard was the sound of debris from an apparent
meteor that had splintered aloft in the outer reaches of
Earth's atmosphere. What they heard, an old Apache sachem
might have said, was the voice of God speaking to the
peoples of Ward County. What they saw was the phenomenon of
rock , red hot and steaming, in its journey through
atmosphere to rest on the surface of the planet.
No, it was not the voice or moving finger of God. It was a
natural phenomenon which is a phenomenon because it doesn't
happen that often anywhere.
But it rained rocks on Sunday, March 22, over the City of
Monahans. Actually rain may be too strong a word. Sprinkled,
maybe? No, that's still too intense. Drizzled? No? Actually
the space rock rain on Monahans was more akin to what passes
for rainstorms in the Permian Basin. A couple of drops,
maybe a couple of more, and then the storm is gone and the
bright skies return.
Two rocks, which may well be portions of splintered
meteorite, were found. They didn't hit anything, which is
lucky because either one would have damaged a roof or a
skull.
It's been a topic of conversation this week in this little
desert town.
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