[I've been fascinated by meteorites since I was a kid (I have an impressive polished piece from the African Gibion Fall) and in 1989, I witnessed a fall that appeared to land somewhere in northern NM. I was tempted to go out and try to find that 'needle in a haystack' but I knew the chances of locating it were millions-to-one. Anyway, this is a good article that suggests possible shortcuts to ID & find one of the hardest-to-find treasures laying—an average of one per acre—on the surface of our planet. —chris]
Article Here:
In the heart of Australia, at a remote site south of Alice Springs, the land is pitted with about a dozen strange depressions. Don’t drink the rainwater that pools there, or a fire devil will fill you with iron. So goes one Aboriginal tale that has been passed down across generations.
The site is the Henbury meteorite field, which was created about 4,700 years ago when a large, iron-filled meteorite slammed into Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart, scattering fragments. The Aboriginal warning is perhaps one of the clearest examples of an oral tradition that has preserved the memory of an ancient meteorite strike, argues Duane Hamacher at the University of New South Wales in Australia. According to Hamacher, such tales may be vital clues pointing toward future finds.
“These traditions could lead to the discovery of meteorites and impact sites previously unknown to Western science,” he writes in a paper that will appear in an upcoming issue of Archaeoastronomy and that was published online August 27.
Most myths and tales are just stories passed down through the ages, altered over time like a vast game of “Telephone.” But some are based on actual geological or astronomical events that occurred long ago. The search for the truth behind those stories has inspired a field of science called geomythology.
Most stories have been passed down for only 600 or 700 years, geoscientist Patrick Nunn of the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia told Smithsonian earlier this year. There are outliers: The Klamath people tell a legend about a battle between two powerful spirits, which details the eruption of Mount Mazama and the creation of Crater Lake in Oregon about 7,700 years ago. But most stories don’t last that long. “These kinds of things are very, very rare,” Nunn said.
In his study, Hamacher identifies several oral traditions from indigenous Australians that he says can be linked to meteorites. The Henbury craters, for instance, were found in 1899 but were not immediately recognized as impact sites. At the time, cattle station owner Walter Parke called them “one of the most curious spots I have ever seen in the country” in a letter to anthropologist Frank Gillen. “To look at it I cannot but think it has been done by human agency, but when or why, goodness knows…" REST OF ARTICLE HERE:
Article Here:
In the heart of Australia, at a remote site south of Alice Springs, the land is pitted with about a dozen strange depressions. Don’t drink the rainwater that pools there, or a fire devil will fill you with iron. So goes one Aboriginal tale that has been passed down across generations.
The site is the Henbury meteorite field, which was created about 4,700 years ago when a large, iron-filled meteorite slammed into Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart, scattering fragments. The Aboriginal warning is perhaps one of the clearest examples of an oral tradition that has preserved the memory of an ancient meteorite strike, argues Duane Hamacher at the University of New South Wales in Australia. According to Hamacher, such tales may be vital clues pointing toward future finds.
“These traditions could lead to the discovery of meteorites and impact sites previously unknown to Western science,” he writes in a paper that will appear in an upcoming issue of Archaeoastronomy and that was published online August 27.
Most myths and tales are just stories passed down through the ages, altered over time like a vast game of “Telephone.” But some are based on actual geological or astronomical events that occurred long ago. The search for the truth behind those stories has inspired a field of science called geomythology.
Most stories have been passed down for only 600 or 700 years, geoscientist Patrick Nunn of the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia told Smithsonian earlier this year. There are outliers: The Klamath people tell a legend about a battle between two powerful spirits, which details the eruption of Mount Mazama and the creation of Crater Lake in Oregon about 7,700 years ago. But most stories don’t last that long. “These kinds of things are very, very rare,” Nunn said.
In his study, Hamacher identifies several oral traditions from indigenous Australians that he says can be linked to meteorites. The Henbury craters, for instance, were found in 1899 but were not immediately recognized as impact sites. At the time, cattle station owner Walter Parke called them “one of the most curious spots I have ever seen in the country” in a letter to anthropologist Frank Gillen. “To look at it I cannot but think it has been done by human agency, but when or why, goodness knows…" REST OF ARTICLE HERE:
