George I don't think the heat was from the small meteorite itself, but the kinetic energy released by the impacting bodies. There was enough energy to form craters/pits that were 20-30m wide and down trees. Like in all cratering events, there was a hot air blast caused by the energy release which may have charred the outside of the trees.
This is just a possible way to explain the charring, if in fact, that is what I am seeing on the bark of the tree (again, not behind the small meteorite). Matt ------Original Message------ From: geo...@aol.com Sender: meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Rocks from Space Picture of the Day -September14, 2009 Sent: Sep 15, 2009 11:04 AM >>I don't see any charring...only staining/rust. << Wanting to expand a little here...assuming the tree was alive when struck, I don't think a small meteorite would carry enuf heat to cause any charring that would be noticed today. Being one who relies on a woodstove as their primary source of heat, I can attest that it's a real bear to get wet wood to even think about burning. If it was a dead tree, I still doubt there would be enuf heat in this small piece to cause anything to burn. If a small piece was hot enuf to cause any charring, I can only imagine how much heat would be in the larger pieces...were there any burnt trees in the strewnfield area? I can't tell from the photograph, but was this piece a fragment or an individual? George Zay ______________________________________________ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ---------------------- Matt Morgan Mile High Meteorites http://www.mhmeteorites.com P.O. Box 151293 Lakewood, CO 80215 USA ______________________________________________ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
