Swarm of meteorites may solve Peru impact mystery

invictus

3-12-2008 7:27 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/10cd1439-bd54-4276-bab6-e0a300ddcbcb/5640DE1F-FCEB-4FF8-8815-4C8A03D5AF58/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13453-swarm-of-meteorites-may-solve-peru-impact-mystery.html?feedId=space_rss20" href="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13453-swarm-of-meteorites-may-solve-peru-impact-mystery.html?feedId=space_rss20" style="font-size: 11px;">space.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13453-swarm-of-meteorites-may-solve-peru-impact-mystery.html?feedId=space_rss20"><P>Last year's <A href="http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19726412.100-meteorites-how-big-is-safe.html">meteorite impact in Peru has puzzled scientists</A>. <A href="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12704-mysteries-remain-over-peru-meteorite-impact-.html">Fragments found at the site reveal the impactor was a stony meteorite</A>, but stony meteorites usually shatter when they hit the Earth's atmosphere, raining many small pieces over a wide area.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13453-swarm-of-meteorites-may-solve-peru-impact-mystery.html?feedId=space_rss20"><P>So how could the meteorite make it all the way to the ground and gouge out a 15-metre-wide crater, such as the one found in the Peruvian town of Carancas?</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13453-swarm-of-meteorites-may-solve-peru-impact-mystery.html?feedId=space_rss20"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/space.newscientist.com/img/6661A806-6343-4C0E-AB81-4F2FB956162B" alt="Like stony meteorites, glass beads break apart when travelling at high speeds through the air, experiments show (left). But under the right conditions, the fragments can stay together in a dense swarm that can still gouge a crater on the ground (right) (Image: Peter Schultz et al/Brown U)" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13453-swarm-of-meteorites-may-solve-peru-impact-mystery.html?feedId=space_rss20"><P>The answer, says a team of scientists, may be that the original meteorite <I>did</I> break up when it slammed into the atmosphere, but then a shock wave formed around the fragments as they fell to Earth. This shock wave acted as a barrier that kept the pieces together so they could blast out a crater on impact.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/5640DE1F-FCEB-4FF8-8815-4C8A03D5AF58/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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