by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
18 April 2008

from Sott Website

 

Somehow, I think it is highly probable that we have a new event to add to our list of Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls.

 

Have a look at the excerpts from the following two news items from this past week and see if something doesn't seem off about the glib and facile "explanations" for a series of extremely bizarre events. Every element of the stories is explainable in the terms presented by Clube and Napier, Mike Baillie and John S. Lewis and which have been the topic of the present series of articles on Comet hazards.

 

At the same time, the explanations given by the "official sources" simply do not sound plausible.

Read and judge for yourself. 2008 - 15, 16, 18 April - Illinois - Maybe we had a comet fragment impact or two or three over a period of several nights? Perhaps a couple of overhead explosions and then, later, a ground impact. Read the following stories and judge for yourself:

That would explain booms and earthquake and lights in the sky spread out over three days.

 

Damage Control - Mysterious booms, lights over Indiana were just F-16s

The Associated Press
Fri, 16 Apr 2008 09:29 UTC


INDIANAPOLIS - The commander of an Indiana Air National Guard unit is investigating why F-16s involved in training exercises created sonic booms two consecutive nights over north-central Indiana, shocking residents who also saw dazzling flares used in the missions. A sonic boom and fireballs and flaming debris that Kokomo-area residents reported seeing in the sky Wednesday night prompted Howard County's police agencies to conduct a two-hour search for what many residents thought was a crashed aircraft.

As it turned out, the fireballs were flares fired by F-16s that are part of the 122nd Fighter Wing, an Indiana Air National Guard unit based at Fort Wayne International Airport.

Staff Sgt. Jeff Lowry with Indiana National Guard's headquarters in Indianapolis said the jets taking part in the training are not supposed to exceed the speed of sound, which is about 760 mph, because supersonic speeds produce sonic booms.

He said the 122nd's commander, Col. Jeff Soldner, will investigate why at least one jet reached supersonic speeds Wednesday night over Howard and Tipton counties, and also on Tuesday night over the Logansport area, shaking the ground below.

"The sonic boom is not routine. That was a mistake. That's being investigated right now and once the wing commander finds out he'll make recommendations on how to change that so it doesn't happen again," Lowry said.

He said F-16 training often involves the aircraft dropping flares from more than 10,000 feet above the ground, a technique that can allow the jets to evade heat-seeking missiles in combat.

Lowry said such flares are routinely dropped during the daylight hours and also at night but they likely would not have attracted much attention without the accompanying sonic booms. The investigation will determine how many of the F-16s broke the sound barrier. Lowry said he did not know how many of the fighter jets were involved in the training missions.

The jets were training in an area called Hilltop Military Operations Area that's not designated for supersonic flights. The training area extends from Grissom Air Reserve Base to West Lafayette and includes Logansport, 30 miles north of Indianapolis bordering Kokomo. Police switchboards in Howard and Tipton counties were inundated by calls after residents saw bright lights just before a loud sound like a sonic boom Wednesday night.

Smith's secretary, Janice Hart, said she was lying on her bed talking to her niece when a loud explosion rocked her home.

"It just shook my house to its depths. As soon as it happened, my niece said, 'Oh my God Aunt Janice, what was that?' I looked out my bedroom window and my husband went to the front of the house to see what it was," she said.

Hart, who initially thought an explosion had rocked a nearby factory, was busy Thursday morning handling calls about the noise and lights.

"That's all they're talking about. I had numerous calls asking if it was a sonic boom, a meteor, even some people joking that it was a UFO," she said.

Logansport Police Chief A.J. Rozzi said he heard a loud sonic boom on Tuesday night, and then heard the sound of a jet high overheard. He said residents also reported seeing fire streaks in the sky.

He said it is common for the 122nd to conduct missions in the area and believes F-16 training almost certainly explains the sights and sounds.

"They've been doing that training for quite a while. I don't know what maneuvers they're actually doing, but they do shoot out streaks of light," he said.

Comment: Jet fighters don't break the sound barrier by mistake. Is it just a coincidence, then, that Illinois had a 5.4 magnitude "earthquake" just a day later during which residents heard a roaring sound?

 

 


 

 

5.4 earthquake rocks Illinois - felt 350 miles away

Posted by Associated Press

April 18, 2008 5:37 AM

 

WEST SALEM, Ill. - A 5.4 earthquake that appeared to rival the strongest recorded in the region rocked people awake up to 350 miles away early Friday, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a powerful Midwest temblor.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered 6 miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind. It was felt in such distant cities as Chicago, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, 350 miles north of the epicenter, but there were no early reports of injuries or significant damage.

"It shook our house where it woke me up," said David Behm of Philo, 10 miles south of Champaign. "Windows were rattling, and you could hear it. The house was shaking inches. For people in central Illinois, this is a big deal. It's not like California."

The quake shook skyscrapers in Chicago's Loop, 240 miles north of the epicenter, and in downtown Indianapolis, about 160 miles northeast of it. Residents of Cincinnati and St. Louis also reported feeling the earth shake.

Irvetta McMurtry of Cincinnati said she felt the rattling for up to 20 seconds.

"All of a sudden, I was awakened by this rumbling shaking," said McMurtry, 43. "My bed is an older wood frame bed, so the bed started to creak and shake, and it was almost like somebody was taking my mattress and moving it back and forth."

Lucas Griswold, a dispatcher in West Salem, said the Edwards County sheriff's department received reports of minor damage and no injuries.

"Oh, yeah, I felt it. It was interesting," Griswold said. "A lot of shaking."

Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle in Evansville said there were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake occurred in the Illinois basin-Ozark dome region that covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The organization's Web site said earthquakes occur irregularly in the area, and that the largest historical earthquake in the region - also a magnitude 5.4 - caused damage in southern Illinois in 1968.

 

Now, add the above to what happened just a little over a week earlier:

 

Hunt on for Argentine meteorite

by Patrick J. McDonnell and Andres D'Alessandro in Buenos Aires

2008 - 6 April - Argentina

from LosAngelesTimes Website

The space rock reportedly crashed late Sunday somewhere in Entre Rios Province, some 260 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, reports the daily Clarin, which quoted a witness, Milton Blumhagen, a student and astronomy buff:

"For three or four seconds I saw an object in flames, changing color until it turned blue when it approached the ground.''

A fire department source said the impact was felt for miles around. No damage was reported. The curious are headed out to the isolated rural zone where the meteorite, or whatever it was, is believed to have struck.

Last year, as this L.A. Times news story recounts, a meteorite strike near Lake Titicaca caused a regional sensation: Area residents said they became sick, and meteor hunters rushed to the site to purchase chunks of space debris, which can fetch high prices on the international market.

 

Scientists dismissed any links between the meteorite and the reported illnesses.

Keep your eyes and ears open!