Re: Meteoric and Cometary impacts in historical times - Hard Evidence

From: Eric Stevens (eric.stevens_at_sum.co.nz)
Date: 10/19/04 

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 12:40:44 +1300

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 22:18:38 GMT, Martyn Harrison
<nospam@spammers.of.the.world.unite> wrote:

>Apparently on date Tue, 19 Oct 2004 03:52:00 GMT, Joe Jefferson
><jjstrshp@mindspring.com> said:
>
>>Eric Stevens wrote:
>>>
>>> The problem with saying that such things have never happened is that
>>> statistics show that earth should experience a Tunguska-like event
>>> about once a century on the average. Such
>>> events have happened, about two thirds have happened at sea but there
>>> should have been a number over inhabited land during historical times.
>>> Analysis shows that there should also have been a number of events
>>> similar to the one which created Lake Chiemsee. The apparent absence
>>> of reports cannot be attributed to there being nothing to report.
>>
>>Eugene Shoemaker calculated that a Tunguska-like event should occur
>>about once every three centuries, not once a century. So in roughly
>>6,000 years of recorded history we should expect there have been about
>>20 such impacts with no more than 6 or 7 hitting on land. For most of
>>human history the majority of the Earth's surface was very sparsely
>>populated. And even if somebody was in the right place to see something,
>>chances are they didn't know how to write. The bottom line is that it
>>wouldn't surprise me at all if Tunguska was the first event of this size
>>ever to be noticed by people able to record what they had seen.
>>
>>Interestingly, Shoemaker also estimated that meteors arrive about once a
>>year with a force equivalent to about 20 kilotons of TNT. And yet these
>>Hiroshima-size events are rarely reported outside the local area where
>>they occur. (Admittedly the explosions generally occur very high in the
>>atmosphere and, so far as I know, nobody has ever been hurt by one.)
>
>Sounds about right.
>
>I reckon I go with impacts being entirely possible but the archaeology has to
>support this. I'm yet to be aware of any genuinely convincing sites, in
>historic impacts and the fact is that there does not happen to be any confirmed
>human casualty from meteor impact, just a dog in Egypt and 99+% of the
>indigenous populations from the KT.
>
>This is the tendency of rocks coming from outer space, they will usually be
>either not particularly important, or will wipe out almost all life on the
>surface of the planet. In between is fairly unusual.

You obviously haven't read much on the subject. The first book I have
picked up (Rain of Iron and Ice - John S. Lewis) list the following
commencing on page 158;

** Tenth century manuscript 'Chroncon Benedicti: Monachi Sancti Andrea
in Monte Soracte' '.. many stones were seen to fall from heaven near
the city of Rome ... in the village that is called Narnnia etc.

** 17 december 1852, a fireball was seen toi imopact in the English
Channel - loud sonic boom - a high plume of spray was ripped apart
from the gale.

** 24 Feb 1885 The crew and passengers of the ship Innerwich en route
from Japan to Vancouver describe a near miss from "a large mass of
fire" shortly followed by a small tsunami.

** 20 August 1907 the steamship Cambrian reported a near (50m) miss
by "a brilliant fireball".

** September 4, 1910 a meteorite plunged into a lake at St Paul

** 29 August 1913 another meteorite into the Fall River (mass)

** 23 April 1922 - a fireball fell into Barnegat Bay. Huge rolling
waves came ashore several minutes later.

** 11 June 1929 'a fireball fell into Lake Superior'.

** 19 October 1936 'spectacular daytime meteors were seen falling into
the sea at different locations - reports of heavy explosions'

** 18 April 1979 - Barnegat Bay again.

** 15 Feb 1988 - Rivers inlet British Columbia

Then on page 169 - there are two reported incidents of people being
killed by a meteorite in Italy - 14 September 1511 (several birds, a
sheep and a monk) and a Fransican monk somewhere between 1633 and
1664.

Other references follow, and then:

"In February or or March of 1490, three different sources describe
another remarkable event. According to Yau et al.:"Stones fell like
rain in the Chiing-yang district(Shansi Province). The larger ones
were 4 to 5 catties (about three pounds) and the smaller ones were 2
to 3 catties (about two pounds). They struck dead more than ten
thousand people" etc

There are many morereports but the they tend to be ignored as unusual
and freakish events.

There have been several reports of larger impactors in the twentieth
century. Two come to mind in South America and one off the coast of
South Africa which for some time was though to be a weapons test.

Rain of Ice and Fire is now out of print but two others which I
believe to be still available are 'Impact' by Gerrit L. Verschuur and
'Rogue Asteriods and Doomsday comets' by Duncan Steel. Knowledge of
the frequency of such impacts has advanced considerably since those
books were written (mid-late 90s) but they give the general picture.

Eric Stevens

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