Hi Bernd/All, Hope you have a very merry Barwellmas! Today (23rd) is known by my family and friends as Ensmas, my birthday and the eve of the Barwell fall. It fell the day after my 9th birthday a few miles away from home and sparked of a lifetimes fascination with meteorites.... I'm still searching for the bits they missed!
Hope you are all enjoying this festive season. Graham Ensor On 23 December 2010 23:25, <bernd.pa...@paulinet.de> wrote: > Happy Birthday, Barwell! > > Bernd (in Germany at 00.35 local time ;-) > > ------------------------------------------------------ > > On December 24, 1965, a Christmas present of sorts fell to the ground around > 16:20 hrs, when a brilliant fireball swept across southern England from a > south > -southwesterly direction and landed in Barwell accompanied by a tremendous > explosion caused by the exploding meteorite that went down in history as the > Christmas Eve meteorite. > > The bolide must have been extremely bright. Some eyewitnesses say it was > brighter > than the sun, others say it was almost twice as bright as Venus. There are > also reports > of color changes during atmospheric descent. > > Local residents noted a large explosion, the sky suddenly lit up, a whizzing > noise was > heard, there was a loud roar, a low rumbling noise, a screaming sound from a > low-flying > object directly overhead, a loud rustling noise after the explosion, a sudden > thud as > something hit the ground, a terrible crack, and also electrophonic phenomena. > > When one local picked up a strange-looking stone about as big as his hand, he > immediately > threw it down again because it "felt warm". This stone had even left a small > crater in the > asphalt road. > > Another Barwell resident found a dent in the hood of his automobile and a > "white stone" > on the ground weighing between six and seven pounds. > > News of the actual fall was slow to spread but when it did, hell broke loose > because > the British Museum had promised financial rewards for each and every find. > Several > larger fragments and innumerable small stones were located by field parties > and local > residents. > > While initial disruption occurred at an altitude of about 25 miles, final > disruption probably > occurred at a very low altitude above Barwell. > > The Barwell L5 chondrite has a gray interior, numerous FeNi specks and > grayish chondrules > that give it a mottled look. Interestingly, some of the fragments at Barwell > came in from slightly > different directions - maybe due to strong winds high up in the atmosphere > because a distinct > smoke trail rapidly disappeared. > > A 17-pounder made a perfectly vertical hole in sandy loam soil to a depth of > 27 inches. > A 14 ½ ounce fragment penetrated the roof of a local factory. > A 7-pound piece lay in an 18-inch hole. > A 6-pound chunk was found in a factory backyard partly buried in a cinder > heap! > > Reference: > > Lancaster Brown P. (1966) The Barwell Meteorite (Sky & Telescope, July 1966, > pp. 7-11). > > ______________________________________________ > Visit the Archives at > http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
