Struck In Nevada and Made a Huge Hole In the Ground.
CARSON, Nev., Feb. 5.?On the night of Feb. 1, about 10:30 o'clock, a brilliant meteor shot out of western Nevada and eastern California, illuminating the heavens for a space of several seconds. The illumination was followed by a low rumbling and shock as if by earthquake.
It has now been ascertained that the meteor struck about 30 miles from a railway station called Candolar, in Esmeralda county, about 149 miles from here. People there saw the meteor describe it an immmense body of fire with a tail like a comet. As it rushed through the air, it made a noise like the sound of a sky-socket.
Just as it started toward at Candolar many people greatly alarmed at the sudden appearance of a great ball of fire. Suddenly it seemed to burst in the air then the light disappeared.
Then came a strange rumbling noise and also a shaking of the earth. It was soon learned that the commotion was caused by the meteor.
People have made wild estimates of the weight of the meteor, some in the excitement saying it must have weighed 100,000 tons to cause such a sbaking of the earth.
Friday morning a party was organized and started in search of the meteor. Toward evening the searchers began to find broken branches which had been broken from trees by flying fragments. Sage brush torn up by the roots and holes in the earth gouged out by parts of the meteor.
Finally they came upon a large hole, nearly 100 feet across, where the larger portion had fallen. It struck on a bare knoll composed of sand and rocks. One report is that the ground was hot about the hole and hence that close examination was impossible.
Pieces were found in the neighborhood within a circle a mile in diameter. The surface of the earth for several hundred yards is scarred by pieces of meteoritic stone.
| Home |
|---|