Please don't misunderstand me... I just said there was reason to be
suspicious from a statistical point of view, and of course there is an
obvious financial motive. But I was not saying that I thought any of
the fall stories were false, since I never even tried to assess them.
So let's see if there is consensus to be found here on these recent
falls. I did a simple reading of the fall accounts and used google
scholar to search for cosmogenic nuclide or other supporting data. Here
are my zeroth order ratings of each fall story:
Chergach - highly likely
Bassikounou - highly likely
Benguerir - probable
Beni M'hira - probable
Bensour - questionable
Oum Dreyga - questionable
The new one - nothing to evaluate
Maigatari-Danduma - ignore since it isn't really in the NWA region
Bensour is such a weak story that I'm leaning towards changing it from a
fall to a find in my database, which is basically what the MetBull
article also said. I'm not even sure how it got listed as a fall. Do any
of you take issue with this?
The Oum Dreyga story also has strange elements. The witnesses saw it
"falling on ... [the] mountains," which probably means that if there was
a real fall, it was very distant. The fact that many of the stones were
weathered also raises my doubts. So I rate this as weak. Anybody want
to take the stand on Oum Dreyga's behalf? Or argue against any of the
ones I called probable or highly likely?
If two are really finds and one is eliminated because it is really not
in this region, then we are left with 4 in the 2000s decade, plus the
new one which remains to be seen. Four is certainly a more palatable
number than eight from a blind statistical point of view, neglecting
other sociological factors.
Jeff
Dr. Svend Buhl wrote:
Interesting debate. Reminds me on the good old days of the Acedemie
Francaise, the days before Biot and Chladni, where scientists doubted
the accounts of local eyewitnesses on rocks falling from the skies for
sociological reasons.
As far as I am concerned, I still trust the people who measured e.g.
the cosmogenic radionuclides of the meteorites produced by these
recent falls. I absolutely doubt that the Swiss or French labs who
worked on these stones made up their results just to make them fit the
newspaper reports and eyewitness accounts.
Svend Buhl
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Grossman" <[email protected]>
To: "Meteorite-list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 11:27 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Northwest Africa Falls - Question
Martin and list,
Actually, there is something suspicious. Northwest Africa (the
countries you listed plus Western Sahara and Tunisia) has seen
between 0 and 3 falls per decade from the 1900s through the 1980s.
The 1990s saw 6, and the 2000s have now got 8. There is no parallel
increase in the rest of Africa, which in fact has been steadily
declining in fall rates since the 1940s. Europe has also been
declining since the 1930s (in fall rates), as has North America. I
think northwest Africa is the only place in the world that is seeing
any kind of increase in rate, and it has been dramatic, tripling in
the last decade.
The are various sociological reasons why this increase might have
happened, which we can argue about. But there certainly IS something
to raise ones eyebrows.
Jeff
Martin Altmann wrote:
Hi Ryan,
it's because of the iron mountain in Atlas, which still has to be
found and
which attracts with his magnetic field all iron-bearing lumps from
space.
No. Take a World map, hold little Europe (forget a little bit about
Scandinavia),
hold it against that NWA region, Algeria, Mali, Niger, Morocco,
Mauretania....
And let's count the falls:
Let's start with Zag 1998.
NWA-Regions:
Zag 1998
El Idrissa 1998
Djoumine 1999
Beni M'hira 2001
Bensour 2002
Oum Dreyga 2003
Maigatari-Danduma 2004
Benguerir 2004
Bassikounou 2006
Chergach 2007
And now the new possible fall.
Europe:
Ourique 1998
Leighlinbridge 1999
Moravka 2000
San Michele 2002
Neuschwanstein 2002
Alby sur Cheran 2002
Villalbeto 2004
Moss 2006
Puerto Lapice 2007
Romanian Fall 2008
11 : 11.
So nothing suspicious.
USA had 7
India 10
Best!
Martin
Ok Folks,
I am curious to know why there are so many witnessed (recovered)
meteorite
falls in Northwest Africa as opposed to anywhere else in the world.
Is there
a good logical and/or scientifc explanation for this?.. or just a
coincidence? I understand that some "falls" simply turn out to be a
case of
Nomadic lies in an attempt to liquidate (recycle) old material, but
what
about the others? Perhpas it has something to do with it's geographical
location in relation to..?
And yes, I do understand these people spend countless hours
outdoors, in the
desert, ect. but..
What are your thoughts?
Ryan
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______________________________________________
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Meteorite-list mailing list
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--
Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman phone: (703) 648-6184
US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA
______________________________________________
http://www.meteoritecentral.com
Meteorite-list mailing list
[email protected]
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
______________________________________________
http://www.meteoritecentral.com
Meteorite-list mailing list
[email protected]
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
--
Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman phone: (703) 648-6184
US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA
______________________________________________
http://www.meteoritecentral.com
Meteorite-list mailing list
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