The Earth Story

The Christmas Eve Meteorite

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse’.

However, it wouldn’t stay quiet for long as, unknown to the people relaxing below, a meteorite was about to come crashing to Earth.

Go back 51 years ago and the small village of Barwell was putting the last finishing touches to their Christmas preparations. As the sun began to set, villagers were walking dogs, making dinner or, in the case of Percy England, admiring their brand new car. If any of you have ever felt like karma/god/the universe has been out to get you, then you may empathise with Percy considering what was to happen next; his new Vauxhall Viva was about to be hit by a 4.5 billion year old meteorite.

The meteorites impact was preceded by a bright burst of light. Dog walkers recall hearing a large booming sound while a few moments after impact carol singers remember a weird crunching noise underfoot as they travelled from house to house. However, many of Barwell’s residents didn’t notice anything amiss until the next morning when they discovered holes in their windows, roofs and, unfortunately for Percy, the bonnet of his car.

It took a few days for the news outlets to release the story but when they did the small village outside Leicester saw an influx of meteorite hunters desperate to find a piece of the rock. In total 44kg was recovered and with one piece found to host an extraordinary feature. It appeared to show a clast of different rock within the host matrix, suggesting the meteorite was formed after the breakup of older bodies somewhere in space. This information has helped scientists to uncover how meteorites are made and the processes that may have been active at the time of Earth’s formation.

In 2015 an event to commemorate the 50th anniversary was held and residents were encouraged to bring any fragments of the meteorite they collected with them. While the fragments are highly valuable it is likely that the people of Barwell still hold onto them as a reminder of the extraordinary events that occurred on 24th December 1965.

I know what I will be wishing for this Christmas, although I might just park my Vauxhall in the garage just in case….

Reference: http://bbc.in/1IH9PMQ

Image Credit: http://bbc.in/1IH9PMQ

Tracking Santa with Radar and Satellites

It’s become tradition for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to track Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. NORAD is a joint military organization of the United States and Canada responsible for things like air defense and tracking missiles, so how did they end up tracking Santa?

In 1955, when NORAD was known as Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), a Colorado Springs newspaper mixed up the phone number in an advertisement. The ad was supposed to be a direct line for kids to call Santa; instead the children ended up calling Colonel Harry Shoup's secret phone line at CONAD. Colonel Shoup must have been very surprised to hear a little child’s voice on a phone line that was only supposed to be known to top-ranking military officials, but he took it in stride and didn’t want to disappoint the children, so he put a couple of airmen on the phone to pretend to be Santa. The airmen had a big glass board that they used to track airplanes, and as a joke, they drew Santa’s sleigh on it. When Colonel Shoup saw it, he took things one step further and called a local radio station to inform them CONAD was seeing an unidentified flying object, and it appears to be a sleigh. After that the radio station called him back every hour to track Santa’s progress, and a tradition was born. Now over 1,250 American and Canadian military personal volunteer their time on December 24 to take calls and answer emails from around the world as NORAD tracks Santa’s trip around the world.

NORAD tracks Santa using every tool at their disposal. First, they use their radar system which uses radio waves to determine distance, direction, and speed of Santa’s sleigh. Next, they use satellites with infrared sensors that can see heat. NORAD claims the nose of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer is especially easy to see in infrared. More recently, as part of moving Santa tracking to the web, NORAD says they also have Santacams that they use on Christmas Eve only so they can see him, and they even send jets to wave hello to him and take his picture.

Photo Credit: Still from NORAD’s “2014 Norad Tracks Santa Trailer” https://www.youtube.com/user/NORADTracksSanta

Read More: http://www.norad.mil/ http://www.noradsanta.org/ http://www.npr.org/2014/12/19/371647099/norads-santa-tracker-began-with-a-typo-and-a-good-sport

Dear Readers, Most of our posts are not reaching your news feed due to fb's filtering system. If you wish to enjoy our posts more often, use the following for information on how to go about it: http://tmblr.co/Zyv2Js1VWMUJ0.

Snowy canyon One of my favorite things to do this year at the Earth Story was my series on the stratigraphy of the Grand Canyon – literally from the oldest rock in the canyon to the youngest. You can find the posts in the series linked, in order, here: http://tmblr.co/Zyv2Js1O3uKW8. In 2012, the Grand Canyon was hit by a nice snowfall on December 24, creating a lovely winter landscape. Interestingly, you can make out the actual temperature structure of the canyon just from this photo. Look at the snow levels – the lowest level where I see any snow is on top of the Redwall Limestone.  In other words, during that snowstorm, there was enough of a temperature gradient that the canyon’s upper levels were below the freezing point of water while the lower platforms of the canyon were warm enough to only see rain. -JBB Image credit: NPS https://flic.kr/p/dDVsqS