Evening star., 1935-06-09

FRIGHTENED HIN ID U ST A
NATIVES.
earth 1t remains in view for only
a GREATNESS moment. 1t disappears.
A few seconds later, however. mis-
sile OF stone or iron, travelling with
80 or 40 times the speed of a cannon
ball. crashes into the soil somewhere,
or plunges beneath the surface Of some
body of water.
There are few more spectacular
sights ever to be seen by human eyes
than the flight of a great meteor. The
queer black projectiles which actually
come to earth have often been held in
fear and reverence among primitive
people and even wise men have inva-
riably regarded them with wonder.
They are the only tangible objects in
all creation that come TO our planet
from the region of the stars. few
weeks or, perhaps. months before
they come within reach Of our hands
they were millions upon millions OF
miles away in space, beyond the moon,
beyond the sun, beyond the farthest
boundary Of our solar system.
Yet despite the popular interest
which has always centered upon them.
they we're never accepted as the sub
| stance for an independent science un-
til late in the Summer OF 1888. when
the Society for Research on Meteor
ties was born in Chicago. in the Field
Museum which houses the worlds
greatest collection of meJeorites. This
year the rev society will celebrate its
second anniversary in Minneapolis
from June "a to 90. in what may well
be the most important session Of its
whole career.
Suggested by Prof. Nininger.
The set-up and operation of the
council was suggested by Prof. H. H.
Nininger, secretary of the Society for
Research on Meteorites. at the an
nual conference of the American AS
sociation for the Advancement OF Sci
ence in Pittsburgh last December. His
suggestion found immediate favor,
and as a result the new council was
/, formed. 1t Is composed Of represent
atives of such famous Institutions as
| the National Museum In Washington,
| the American Museum OF Natural His
| tory in New York City, the Field Mu-
| scum in Chicago, Harvard University,
the University OF Pennsylvania and
the University of California, together
with other important museums ana
universities scattered Throughout the
country.
The first business Of the council will
be to consider ways in which the big
venture may be financed 1t is hopeo
that a fund of at least 81 900, 900 may
be raised, perhaps through the bene-
faction of some Science-minded phil
anthropist, to establish foundation.
With that much money available
Prof. Nininger believes. every meteor
ite that fell In America thereafter
could be traced and found.
Linked to Carolina Bays"
The great upturn of scientific In
terest in meteorites during the last
two of three years has resulted mainly
from several important discoveries.
Most spectacular among them was
the revelation of the probable meteorlc
origin of the Carolina bays" For
more than 400 miles along the Atlantic
seacoast, from Norfolk. Va, to the
Savannah River, and for fully 100
miles inland, many people have noted
the presence of a large number OF
strange pits in the earth. Some OF
the pits are as much as mile wide
and several miles long, but they all
are very shallow-not more than 10
feet deep, at the most.
In 1882 two scientists from the
University Of Oklahoma, Prof. F. A.
Melton and Prof. William Schriever,
flew over the area, taking photo
graphs of the bays" These aerial
photographs were truly amazing. They
revealed that every pit was elongated
in the same direction, and that every
one was surrounded by q rim, highest
at the southeast end. What could
| have caused such craters except a
vast bombardment Of projectiles from
space, all travelling in the same d.
rection?
Further study of the "bays" has
gone far to confirm the theory that
ages ago. probably many centuries
before civilization began to rise along
the banks of the Nile, great comet
head collided with the earth. The
shallow pits that we may see in the
Carolinas today were deep craters be-
fore the wind and the rain filled
them with sand and soil; they were
gouged by tremendous masses OF iron
or stone, now buried deep in the
bowels Of the earth.
3,oO0 Craters Visible.
There are more than 5000 Of these
craters still visible, but probably
thousands more have been completely
obliterated. Indeed, some scientists
believe that the fall originally covered
vastly greater area, extending inland
to the middle Of Ohio and far out into
the Atlantic Ocean.
The work of Melton and schriever
turned the attention of scientists not
only on the Carolina bays" but also
on other craters gouged by great pro-
jectiles from the sky in other parts OF
the world. The famous meteor crater
near Winslow, Ariz., had long been
recognized as the scare of another tre-
mendous fall, though vastly smaller
than the one which pitted the Caro-
linas. This depression is almost a mile
across and 500 feet deep.
Hardly smaller in mass, perhaps,
than the single projectile which bored
the crater in the Arizona desert. was
the comet head which ages ago hurtled
down to earth in Central Australia
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