The Day It Rained Rocks: A Rare Meteor Shower Over Holbrook in 1912 Hurled Fragments Up to 6 Miles Across the Desert (Text by Leo W. Banks, Illustration by Mike Benny):
Seventeen years old at the time, Pauline McCleve stood outside her home with her family members as the meteor descended. "We were watching the sky and talking about shooting stars when Papa pointed up and said, 'Look, there's one!"' recalled McCleve, now 105 and living in Tempe. A long string of sparkling bright light trailed the enormous mass, which McCleve described as similar to a Fourth of July sparkler, only much bigger and more intense. "It was heavenly; something that belonged to God's realm," said McCleve. "But I was frightened because it was coming straight toward us. Maybe the others were standing up facing the danger, but I was cowering, getting closer and closer to the ground. "I saw it explode in the air and send masses of itself in all directions. It was like shrapnel. The noise was the loudest I've ever heard in my life, and when it landed, it shook the ground like an earthquake." After it hit, McCleve's father matter-of-factly remarked, "Well, it missed us," then told the children they could wait until morning to go to the landing site. Best regards, Bernd ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
