Amana Iowa meteor field

[JamesE]

Anybody have any experience or knowledge of the Amana Meteor of the 1850's ? From what I've been able to find for info, the field should be off the IA River and 4 to 5 miles long North to South. Anybody have any knowledge of composition or closer location? Jim

 

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[Kentucky Kache]

According to Norton, the meteorites fell near Homestead and were scattered over an 18 square mile area from Amana to north Boltonville. At least one stone was found on top of the ground.

It fell Feb 12 1875.

 

[JamesE]

Thanks jbot, is that to imply it was a stony composition? And from distribution, an airburst? I've seen every episode of the "Honeymooners", pretty sure it's not the same guy. Could you offer a little more on 'Norton'? Do all of the dots represent found pieces? Or if you have a link to the info, that wold be better. Thanks again, nimby

 

[Kentucky Kache]

Thanks jbot, is that to imply it was a stony composition? And from distribution, an airburst? I've seen every episode of the "Honeymooners", pretty sure it's not the same guy. Could you offer a little more on 'Norton'? Do all of the dots represent found pieces? Or if you have a link to the info, that wold be better. Thanks again, nimby

The dots do represent locations of stones. The Book is "Rocks From Space" by O. Richard Norton.

 

[Kentucky Kache]

Norton did call them stony meteorites. It did explode two miles above the earth.

Even the stony meteorites have some nickel-iron content.

 

[JamesE]

Much thanks, maybe I'll get out the snowplow and go lookin', more likely though, I'll get the book from the library and go lookin' in April. nimby

 

[Kentucky Kache]

I would almost bet that there are still some meteorites there to be found. I hope you find them.

 

[paseclipse]

Here's the info from the Meteoritical Bulletins database for that meteorite-

http://tin.er.usgs.gov/meteor/index...All&mblist=All&phot=&snew=0&pnt=no&code=11901

 

[JamesE]

Thanks Paseclipse, With all the knowledge and good attitude on Tnet, you'd think we could save the world! nimby

 

[JamesE]

Thanks for the PM, I'm looking for places to hunt before I leave IA in the Spring, generally folks are pretty easy about letting 'locals' hunt their property (or anybody) if you're polite and show respect from the gitgo.
If you have experience, or if anybody else wants to guess,
from 2 miles up, at a stoney density /velocity and accounting for deceleration of parts driven in the reverse of direction of travel due to implosion, care to venture a guess as to depths of pieces? At 2 mile Alt. the debris field seems too small.
Do you know if thepieces would react as 'hotrocks' or coldstones?
Sorry to ask so much, nimby jim

 

[Kentucky Kache]

Too far out of my league. From what I read that sounds like a pretty normal area.
Hundreds of pounds of rocks were recovered and it sounds like they were picked up off the frozen surface. Maybe some of the heavier ones are still under ground.
Meteorites do sound off on a detector, I'm not sure about value of the signal.

 

[JamesE]

Well there ya' go, a well, Duh, moment. In Feb. if there is any snow, even the small chunks would sit in little snow melt craters, and the U of I at IA City is maybe only an hour from there by horse and carriage, And IA hasn't changed much from the ol' days, still one boooring SOB in the Winter, it was probably big doings to go find pieces when there weren't much else to do. Others may know better, but methinks the IA River runs through bluffs around those parts and maybe the base of blffs might have somethin left. Would need some research on immediate weather and snow cover, old news to estimate the percentage of recovery. You sure have been a help in this, Thanks, nimby

 

[Kentucky Kache]

You'll get more out of the book than I'm able to explain. Go get 'em.

 

[paseclipse]

Good luck out there! I'm willing to bet you can probably find a lot of information about this meteorite if you spend the time datamining the internet. Probably something out there to find.

If you guys are interested in learning about meteorite hunting from real meteorite hunters check out the Nuggetshooter forum-

http://www.nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=ae6af25659ea86b0754518a59f1d1369&showforum=4

Del

 

[JamesE]

Appreciate all the help and everything, A guy sure does get his moneys' worth for price of admission here!!!
nimby---jim