Paper: The Chronicle-Telegram City: Elyria, Ohio Date: Thursday, June 16, 1994 Page: A2
Meteorite shakes Montreal vicinity
ST. ROBERT, Quebec (AP) - A grapefruit-sized rock first spotted by a herd of cows came from a 4.5 billion-year-old-meteorite, a scientist said Wednesday.
Traveling about 60 miles per second, the meteorite crashed to earth in a field Tuesday night with a streak of fire and a sonic boom. Thousands around Montreal jammed telephone lines calling authorities.
Stephan Forcier of St. Robert found the meteorite in his field after his cows gathered around the foot-deep hole where it landed.
"I saw a ball of smoke as if a place had blown up," said her neighbor, Vital Lemay. "Then I heard something like a falling whistle, like the kind you'd hear in a war movie."
Richard Herd, a geologist with the Canadian Geological Survey, drove from Ottawa to St. Robert, a farming village about 60 miles northwest of Montreal, to inspect the rock.
"Judging from the size of the fireball and the noise, it must have been quite a large object to begin with and there may be other pieces out there," Herd said.
Meteorites are fragments of meteors, or shooting stars, that fell to earth. Ranging in size from a pinhead to masses weighing several tons, they probably originate when comets or small planets called asteroids collide in space.
Thousands of meteorites fall every day but usually burn up before hitting the earth's surface, Herd said.
About 50 meteorites have been found in Canada, the last one in 1977, Herd said.
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