The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1934-04-27

over it. These fakes may also be while the
surface is black. They are flakes of metal.
To see meteorite actually crash to earth Is
one of the most spectacular sights among nat
ural phenomena. One vivid description of fall
some years ago tells that the noise was like
"heavy cannonadng, accompanied by an unearth-
~ Kissing" and that the ground trembled as in
an earthquake. People rushed from their houses
in fright and though it was midafternoon, they
saw great dazzling" ball of fire in the heav-
ems like to the moon in size, suffering and
throwing off long train of sparks" and leaving
In its wake "a heavy line of black smoke" This
meteorite fell in more than thousand frag-
ments near Forest City, Iowa. One piece. weigh
ing 66 pounds, fell farmer in field and
buried itself more than three feet In the hard
prairie soil
Hardly year passes without fall somewhere
in the United States witnessed by persons who
testify to its splendor and frightening aspect.
Fortunately, however we have never been Wis
tied by a meteorite such fell on the isolated
steppes of north-central Siberia In 1908. The
force of the air. blasting out from it, moved
fat more than seven hundred square miles of
dense forest. 1t killed herd of 1,500 reindeer,
and forced a train, 400 miles south, to stop in
order to keep on the rails. Russian farmer,
80 miles away, was knocked unconscious and re-
turned to his senses to find the air so hot that
he feared his clothes would catch fire. His house
was demolished.
This great of iron, buried deep in the
ground, is estimated to weigh 10000 tons; but
it is small indeed when compared to another
mass that fell the desert plains near Win
Slow Ariz. In a time before the white men came
there This enormous meteorite which bored it's
way more than 1900 feet into the earth, is
known to weigh several million TONS 1t left
behind it crater almost mile across and
nearly 600 feet deep, as it appears today.
Many other tremendous falls have happened
since the world began. No doubt, if we were to
explore the bottoms Of the oceans, we would
find hundreds of great masses of stone and iron
buried in the slime. Other great masses are
buried beneath our feet, and the craters which
they left behind them have been obliterated by
wind and rain. 1t has been discovered very re-
Gently however, that traces of these craters may
sometimes be seen when viewed from aloft in an
airpane. Several groups of them have been
found In America during the past two years.
Where do meteorites come from? 1t is sup
posed that they are fragments of comets which
have been torn apart by the powerful gravita-
ton of the sun and the larger planets OF the
solar system The Leonids are believed to be
fragments Of Temples comet which has disap-
peared like the meteor showers. Another comet.
known as Bielas, was actually seen to break up
and finally to vanish entirely; but now we are
showered with an unusually large number Of
meteors whenever II should be in the neighbor-
hood Of our earth, according to the computations
of astronomers.
How many meteorites have really hit the
earth? Professor Nininger estimates that more
than $1,000 Of them have fallen on every square
mile Of the earth's surface since the mammoth
roamed the steaming forests Of prehistoric times.
That means that the very ground on which we
walk is made up largely of the dust into which
they have fallen.
Confirmation of that belief is seen In the the
ory advanced recently by Ralph w. Stone, as
sistant state geologist of Pennsylvania. that
coating Of meteorite dust 10 inches thick lies on