Thanks John. Very short little synopsis. Much more to come. Michael Farmer
> On Feb 22, 2019, at 6:05 PM, John Lutzon <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Mike, > > Reads like you need to find a more interesting line of interests. Boring, > boring...{:-)) > > Great, Great rendition of a meteorite fall and eyes on the ground. !!!!!!!! > > My personal Best, John > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Michael Farmer via Meteorite-list > To: Meteorite Mailing List > Sent: Friday, February 22, 2019 6:07 PM > Subject: [meteorite-list] Viñales meteorite fall report > > > I just spent a week in Viñales. > The stories about the fall are incredible. > I’d like to share a few things regarding the fall. > > I speak fluent Spanish so getting the information was easy. > > One farmer was in his yard feeding chickens when he saw the bright flash for > a couple of seconds he said brighter than the sun. Hard to see because the > sun was also in the same direction. It then he saw the smoke trail overhead > expanding once it passed over. A couple minutes later the sonic booms and > shockwave hit. he said it was like being punched. Then a minute or more after > the shockwave hit, stones started falling all around him. > He heard individual pieces screaming in making whistling sounds and hitting > the ground. One hit his garden about 50 feet away. Another landed in the > pond about 100 feet away, making a large water splash. Another hit in the > coffee plants behind his house. He said stones were falling for over a minute > or two. Hitting at different times. They didn’t all come down at once. > He and his family found 4 near his house. One he heard hit in thick brush and > it hasn’t yet been found. One hit a yucca plant nearly Cutting the trunk in > half. He found that stone 5 days later embedded in the soil at the base of > the plant. > > His wife found another across the street of almost 1 kilogram. It was > embedded in the soil and only the top surface was showing. > > One boy on a bicycle was riding home rapidly afraid from the explosions. He > thought it was an American missile attack. A large 250 gram meteorite slammed > into the asphalt road in front of him nearly hitting him. He saw it bounce > into the ditch and he jumped off the bike and grabbed it, rapidly throwing it > down because the stone was painfully cold. > > Another stone landed on the patio of the guesthouse Where I stayed in > downtown Viñales town. > I spoke to three other people who saw stones hit the ground and picked the up > instantly, all said same thing, that they had to drop them because they were > so cold. > > One stone penetrated a house roof in Viñales and smashed a laptop computer. I > have not located the stone or computer to confirm. Possible the police > confiscated it. I have people working on it. I know of at least 15 houses > hit. All stones taken by the government. > > I drove all over the Viñales Valley area, a massive area and no part was > spared meteorites. They were everywhere. Heavily scattered and not well > sorted. > 10 gram stones fell a few feet from 2.5 kilogram stones. 50 gram, 500 gram. > All same place. > > Miles away in the town of La Majagua, thousands of small peas landed. Sadly > few were collected. The area is dense jungle and forest. Some people reported > picking up over 100 stones in a short time. Many thrown away or given to the > government. People came from far away and took pieces. Miles up the road to > the east is the El Salto lake. Many stones were found on the dam. It has been > heavily searched and I spent a few hours there and didn’t find any. Some > people reported going into the pine forest nearby and finding many small > stones on the pine needles on the ground. > Sadly a massive heavy rain came last week only a couple days before my > arrival washing away the roads and making finds much more difficult. With > limited time I didn’t make any finds. > > Most stones that landed in the soft farm soil penetrated in and vanished > under the soil. Before the rain people could see the impact holes and locate > the stone below. Now after the rain they are impossible to locate. Stones are > still being found in grassy pastures and fields. But ticks are a problem. > Within moments of entering the grass you will be covered in tiny ticks. I’m > still looking for them. > > Stones are reported as falling in Pilotos village as well. This is due to the > high winds that curved the strewn field sharply to the east. Doubtless > millions of stones fell. The energy was 1.5 kiloton and the mass was 350~ > tons. If 99 % vaporized there would still be 3 tons on the ground. > The problem is that the main part of the strewn field with larger pieces is > all jungle, mountains and dense tropical forest. Not much chance of many > large ones being recovered, and the largest masses made it to the ocean. > > Hard to estimate what’s been recovered. I’d put it at 30-50 kilograms or more. > > I have a limited number of complete crusted stones from 10 grams up yo about > 50 grams. I was able to decide what to purchase so I only took the best > pieces. Money is severely limited in Cuba due to no access to American > banking. Impossible to use any credit card or bank card. Cash is heavily > taxed. Changing is dollars incurs an instant 13% penalty tax! > Michael Farmer > > If you want a gorgeous complete stone contact me rapidly. There aren’t > many of them. Mostly fragments. > > > > Sent from XFINITY Connect App > > > Michael Farmer > ______________________________________________ > > Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the > Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com > Meteorite-list mailing list > [email protected] > https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
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