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Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls Astronomy books and papers far too numerous to cite offer the assurance that “no one has ever been killed by a meteorite.” (John S. Lewis, University of Arizona) Over the past few years, while sott.net has been tracking the increasing flux of fireballs and meteorites entering the earth’s atmosphere, we have been, by turns, amused and horrified at the ignorant reactions and declarations that issue from academia and the media regarding these incursions. A few years ago, we read that “this is a ‘once in a hundred years’ event!” Not long after it was a “once in a lifetime” event. Still later, after a lot more incidents it became a “once in a decade” event. More recently, it has been admitted in some quarters that meteorites hit the ground (as opposed to safely burning up in the atmosphere) several times a year! And of course, we have discovered the fact that the governments of our planet are well aware that there are atmospheric explosions from such bodies numerous times a year. We have also learned in this series that the frequent reports of unusual booms and shaking of the ground is often due to such overhead explosions. Yet the media steadfastly refuses to honestly address this issue, though we have noted a plethora of recent articles presenting opposing academic arguments designed to put the populace back to sleep, to reassure them that there is nothing to worry about, that such things only happen every 100,000 years or so, and certainly, the Space Watch Program is going to find all the possible impactors and take care of things. Recent articles we have covered on SOTT.net include: Top Scientists Want Research Free From Politics Leading U.S. scientists called on Congress Thursday to make sure the next president does not do what they say the George W. Bush Administration has done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research. Among the more than 15,000 government scientists signing onto the statement are Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre and former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and Anthony Robbins, professor of medicine at Tufts University and former director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. “Although surely the worst, the Bush Administration is not the first, nor will it be the last administration to mistreat and misuse science and scientists,” Robbins said. The White House itself has been directly involved in the suppression and falsification of science, Robbins stressed. But interference from the White House is just part of the problem, said Francesca Grifo, a former government researcher and now a director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Industry lobbyists are all over government agencies, trying to influence research that will impact their corporations, she said. “These special interest groups are being given access at the highest level.” “Government scientists have had their findings subjected to censorship and misrepresentation,” said Kurt Gottfried, professor of physics at Cornell University and a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “The public and Congress have often been deprived of accurate and candid scientific information.” “The pursuit of science in an open society has had a long and fruitful tradition in America,” Gottfried said. “Unfortunately, this tradition has been violated in recent years by the government itself.” Another: Government’s funding framework breeds scientific conformity Here is a list of beliefs in the biomedical and climate sciences that must not be questioned if you’re applying for a government grant: – That global warming is caused by humans; – That AIDS is caused by a virus; – That radiation, cigarette smoke and other toxins are dangerous in proportion to their strength, no matter how small the dose; – That heart disease is caused by saturated fats; – That cancer is caused by mutations. This is part of a list offered by a University of Washington professor of surgery, Donald W. Miller, who is a heart surgeon at the VA Medical Center in Seattle. Miller believes that all the above ideas may be false, and ought to be tested. But much of science runs on government money. Some people find the stink of bias only in private money, and see government as free of it, but they are mistaken. Government likes certain beliefs. To get its money, you have to get the approval of the scientists it selects, and you are less likely to get it if they think your idea wrong. What that means, Miller says, is that “If you say low doses of radiation aren’t bad for you, or that global warming is due to variations in the sun, you can’t get funded.” He says this happened to University of California scientist Peter Dues-berg, who challenged the viral theory of AIDS, and to Harvard’s Willie Soon, who challenged the pollution theory of global warming, and to others. In a paper published in 2007 in the Journal of Information Ethics, Miller argued that conformity is built into the system of government grants. In 2005, in the scientific journal Cellular and Molecular Biology, Pollack made an argument similar to Miller’s. American science, he wrote, has become “a culture of believers” whose rule is, “just keep it safe and get your funding.” For science, the result has not been good. Thomas Kuhn, the philosopher of science, argued famously that science progresses in revolutionary bursts, in which the “dominant paradigm” is overturned. But what if the supporters of the dominant paradigm are the people vetting your application? We most certainly can see that the issue of meteorite, cometary and asteroid impacts on our planet, and their true potential danger to each and every one of us, must be added to this list of unfunded research. This is a very bad and dangerous state of affairs. As Victor Clube wrote in his letter to SOTT.net: First, I should say your references to the (cosmically complacent) paleoclimate community and to my otherwise unread narrative report to the USAF european office strike a very considerable chord with me. After all neither Ms Victoria Cox nor your good self can be aware how very much Bill and I had reason to appreciate the timely injection of USAF funds at a time when the line of research we championed appeared to be successfully closed down by the UK scientific establishment. Thus we were both in turn obliged to relinquish our career posts at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh on account of this line of research – which gave rise to our reincarnation at a more tolerant haven namely my alma mater (Oxford). Also, whilst I broadly accept your commentary regarding the role of “national elites” in the face of near-Earth threats, I am quite certain the elites in practice currently know VERY “much LESS than they let on” and that the situation for humanity is dire. Any comfort you may draw from the opposite opinion seems to me to be entirely misplaced. Thus although the globally modest efforts to assess the NEO threat with telescopes by a few semi-enlightened national administrations (eg USA) or by a few private enterprises (eg Gates) are certainly to be commended, I look upon this aspect of the NEO threat as basically intermittent and therefore more or less symbolic so far as generally more urgent and still largely undetected low mass NEO flux (which is demonstrably climatological in its effect) is concerned. This particular threat (evidently responsible for our planet’s evolving glacial/interglacial condition during the past 3 million years) is of course _fundamentally_ ignored by the current Body Scientific and hence by most of humanity as well. And so, it seems, we here at SOTT.net, and some brave souls with the good of humanity at heart, are on their own, opposed by the governments that are supposed to be in place to look after the interests of their people. Of course, the question arises: what led to this general and overall blindness on the part of the people we look to for interpretation and explanation of our reality? How can the people who write textbooks, teach in schools, even at the highest level, be so ignorant? The consequences of this ignorance are, after all, detrimental to everyone for many reasons, not the least of which is simple survival in a rather hostile environment. The events that have been covered so far in this series have led us to understand that there have been many times when it is highly probable that the earth – or parts thereof – was bombarded with meteorites or exploding aerial cometary fragments. These events occurred, and were probably related to, periods of great stress on the environment and humanity as a whole. Climate changes brought floods, droughts, extreme temperatures, crop failures and famine. These pressures may have caused lowered disease resistance for given populations, and it is also conjectured that extra-terrestrial bombardments may have carried disease pathogens. Impacts or crustal disturbances could have placed stresses on the geological structures so that outgassings from fissures, the ocean, or lakes may have poisoned large numbers of people, not to mention the record of tsunamis that is now called into question. Do we know, for example, that the Christmas tsunami-causing earthquake near Malaysia was not impact induced? No, we don’t. And we can’t trust either our governments or the news media – or even most of academia who owe their livelihoods to the government – to tell us the truth. Why do they lie to us? Well, the main reason is rather simple: it’s all about control. All of these things, taken together, place intolerable stresses on the human social organism and, as is typical for human beings, this brings on a crisis of faith, demands for answers, demands for protection that governments simply find it too expensive to provide. When the world shows itself to be a hostile environment, when the environment suggests that there is no god and humanity is cast adrift in an uncaring cosmos, most people cannot tolerate this; they desperately need to restore their belief in something “out there” that is going to save them, and if there is no one to save the, that means that someone has to be blamed for the disasters: a scapegoat. The corrupt governments do not want to be blamed, so they seek to blame someone else and convince the masses that this object of derision is the chief cause of all terrors. And the masses invariably buy into these maneuvers because, of course, if you can find someone or something to blame for calamity, you can continue in your illusion that “God is in his heaven and – but for the evil acts of the chosen scapegoat – all would be right with the world.” Otherwise, the tension and anxiety of having no control (even vicarious, via prayer or ritual) over the hostile environment, would be unbearable. I’m sure that you notice that this also relieves the individual of any responsibility as well, so this approach works in all kinds of situations. We are going to examine this problem in some depth further on, but for now, I would like the reader to become acquainted with the facts. What I have prepared for today is The List, by no means exhaustive, of all the incidents I have been able to uncover of meteorite, asteroid, or cometary impacts that have caused death and destruction, property damage, or were near misses. Major parts of The List are extracted from the work of John S. Lewis, Professor of Planetary Sciences at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Codirector of the NASA/University of Arizona Space Engineering Research Center, and Commissioner of the Arizona State Space Commission, in specific, his books entitled Rain of Iron and Ice and Comet and Asteroid Impact Hazards on a Populated Earth. In this latter volume, he writes: The most intensively studied impact phenomenon, impact cratering, is of limited importance, due to the rarity and large mean time between events for crater-forming impacts. Almost all events causing property damage and lethality are due to bodies less than 100 meters in diameter, almost all of which, except for the very largest and strongest, are fated to explode in the atmosphere. [W]e are forced to conclude that the complex behavior of smaller bodies is closely relevant to the threat actually experienced by contemporary civilization. Based on the data he collected, Lewis noted that: [O]n the century time scale, firestorm ignition and direct blast damage by rare, strong, deeply penetrating bodies are the most common threats to human life, with average fatality rates of about 250 people per year. On a 1000-year scale, the most severe single event, which is usually a 10 to 100 megaton Tunguska-type airburst, accounts for most of the total fatalities. On longer time scales, regional impact-triggered tsunamis become the most dangerous events. The exact impactor threshold size for global effects remains poorly determined. Perhaps most interesting is the implication that the large majority of lethal events (not of the number of fatalities) are caused by bodies that are so small, so faint, and so numerous that the cost of the effort required to find, track, predict, and intercept them exceeds the cost of the damage incurred by ignoring them. Unfortunately, Prof. Lewis did not have to hand the information presented by Mike Baillie in his book New Light on the Black Death, nor did he consider the global events of 12000 years ago revealed by the work of maverick scientists, Firestone, West and Warwick-Smith. If he had added the estimated numbers of fatalities from those events into his calculations, it might not have decided that the small, faint, and numerous bodies were so easily ignored. I think that if ALL the data were plugged in, the average deaths per year would be a lot higher than 250. Regarding impacts from history, Lewis writes in Comet and Asteroid Impact Hazards on a Populated Earth: Many ancient sources from many cultures treat comets as literal, physical harbingers of doom. Such phenomena as the burning of cities and the overthrow of buildings and walls by aerial events are mentioned many times in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chinese records, but there is no evidence of physical understanding of the nature of the bombarding objects or their effects until quite recently. There is indeed a language problem in understanding the ancient reports, but it is largely a matter of the lack of an appropriate technical vocabulary in the older writings. In certain locations and periods, especially in medieval Europe, all unusual heavenly events were interpreted as signs sent by God. Therefore, the surviving accounts are strongly biased toward explaining the moral purpose of these events, not their physical nature. Such fundamental information as exact date and time, exact location, place of appearance of the phenomenon in the sky, its duration and physical extent, luminosity, precise nature of the damage done, and the like were generally regarded as unimportant, and therefore rarely recorded for posterity. Even in 20th century newspapers, bolide explosions may be described (and indexed) as “mysterious explosions,” aerial blasts, aerolites, aeroliths, bolides, earthquakes, fireballs, meteorites, meteors, shocks, thunder, and so on. Reports of meteorite falls, often with consequent damage, extend back to the fall of a “thunderstone” in Crete in 1478 BC, described by Malchus in the Chronicle of Paros. The earliest Biblical source is the account of a lethal fall of stones in … Other ancient reports in the West are found in the writings of Pausanius, Plutarch, Livy, Pindar, Valerius Maximus, Caesar, and many others. The report of a great fall of black dust at Constantinople in 472 BC, perhaps the result of a high-altitude airburst, is documented by Procopius, Ammianus Marcellinus, Theophanes, and others. Colonel S. P. Worden has called to my attention the following passage in The History of the Franks,written by Bishop Gregory of Tours: “580 AD in Louraine, one morning before the dawning of the day, a great light was seen crossing the heavens, falling toward the east. A sound like that of a tree crashing down was heard over all the countryside, but it could surely not have been any tree, since it was heard more than fifty miles away… the city of Bordeaux was badly shaken by an earthquake … a supernatural fire burned down villages about Bordeaux. It took hold so rapidly that houses and even threshing-floors with all their grain were burned to ashes. Since there was absolutely no other visible cause of the fire, it must have happened by divine will. The city of Orleans also burned with so great a fire that even the rich lost almost everything.” Astronomers who have sought documentary evidence of ancient astronomical phenomena (eclipses, comets, fireballs, etc.) have found that East Asian records are far superior to European records for many centuries. Kevin Yau has searched Chinese records and found many reports of deaths and injuries (Yau et al., 1994). The Chinese records of lethal impact events include the death of 10 victims from a meteorite fall in 616 AD, an “iron rain” in the O-chia district in the 14th century that killed people and animals, several soldiers injured by the fall of a “large star” in Ho-t’ao in 1369, and many others. The most startling is a report of an event in early 1490 in Ch’ing-yang, Shansi, in which many people were killed when stones “fell like rain.” Of the three known surviving reports of this event, one says that “over 10,000 people” were killed, and one says that “several tens of thousands” were killed. On 14 September 1511, a meteorite fall in Cremona, Lombardy, Italy, reportedly killed a monk, several birds, and a sheep. In the 17th century we find reports of a monk in Milano, Italy, who was struck by a meteorite that severed his femoral artery, causing him to bleed to death, and of two sailors killed on shipboard by a meteorite fall in the Indian Ocean. In addition to these shipboard fatalities, there have been several striking accounts of near disasters involving impacts very close to ships. Near midnight of 24 February 1885, at a latitude of 37 degrees N and a longitude of 170 degrees 15 minutes E in the North Pacific, the crew of the barque Innerwich, en route from Japan to Vancouver, saw the sky turn fiery red: “A large mass of fire appeared over the vessel, completely blinding the spectators; and, as it fell into the sea some 50 yards to leeward, it caused a hissing sound, which was heard above the blast, and made the vessel quiver from stem to stem. Hardly had this disappeared, when a lowering mass of white foam was seen rapidly approaching the vessel. The noise from the advancing volume of water is described as deafening. The barque was struck flat aback; but, before there was time to touch a brace, the sails had filled again, and the roaring white sea had passed ahead.” A strikingly similar event occurred only 2 years later on the opposite side of the world. Captain C.D. Swart of the Dutch barque J.P.A. reported in the American Journal of Meteorology 4 (1887) that, when sailing at 37 degrees 39 minutes N and 57degrees W, at about 5 pm on 19 March 1887, during a severe storm in which it was “as dark as night above,” two brilliant fireballs appeared as in a sea of fire. One bolide “fell into the water very close alongside the vessel with a roar, and caused the sea to make tremendous breakers which swept over the vessel. A suffocating atmosphere and perspiration ran down every person’s face on board and caused everyone to gasp for fresh air. Immediately after this, solid lumps of ice fell on deck, and everything on deck and in the rigging became iced, notwithstanding that the thermometer registered 19 degrees C.” On 20 August 1907, the steamship Cambrian arrived in Boston from England with an equally extraordinary tale to tell. When the ship was several hundred miles south of Cape Race, Newfoundland, steaming along under a clear sky, a brilliant fireball appeared near the northeastern horizon and “rushed across the sky like a rocket. The next moment it passed over the topmast of the liner with a tremendous roar and plowed up the sea about fifty yards from the boat. The upheaval of the water was terrific, but the ship was not damaged.” The report of this event was carried in the New York Times. Next, according to the Times, on 13 September 1930, a fireball plunged into the sea near Eureka, California, barely missing the tug Humboldt, which was towing the Norwegian motorship Childar out to sea. It requires little imagination to appreciate that such an event, if it were to strike a ship, should easily cause fatalities, or even the loss of the vessel with all hands. Now, that just gives you a taste of what is to come. (I would like you to notice the highlighted mention of the fall of chunks of ice.) So, without further ado, here is: THE LIST: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls 10,000 – 11,000 B.C. (10,700) – The earliest disaster we know of from our historical or mythic records is, of course, the legendary Deluge of Atlantis. The description of the end of Atlantis given by Plato in the “Timaeus” and “Critias” dialogues bears striking resemblance to what many scientists are now agreed would be the inevitable result of an oceanic impact by a disintegrating comet or large asteroid. The resultant ‘tsunami’, or tidal waves, would easily reach 2000 ft. high as they approached land, wiping out any and all coastal settlements. The deluge traditions, of which there are literally hundreds worldwide, appear in this light to be variations on Plato’s account, and could even be actual observation-based tales, eye-witness accounts of the same, or similar, events. This is very likely the event discussed by Firestone, West and Warwick-Smith in The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: How a Stone-Age Comet Changed the Course of World Culture. As I have discussed in my book, The Secret History of the World, the North and South American continents in the Western Hemisphere fit all the descriptions of “Atlantis,” and it is very likely that the event that led to the extinction of about 30 species of large mammals about 12,000 years ago was the source of the legends of Atlantis and probably the legends of a global deluge: Noah’s Flood. Let’s look at some descriptions of what such an event can do. Back in the 1940s Dr. Frank C. Hibben, Prof. of Archeology at the University of New Mexico led an expedition to Alaska to look for human remains. He didn’t find human remains; he found miles and miles of icy muck just packed with mammoths, mastodons, and several kinds of bison, horses, wolves, bears and lions. Just north of Fairbanks, Alaska, the members of the expedition watched in horror as bulldozers pushed the half-melted muck into sluice boxes for the extraction of gold. Animal tusks and bones rolled up in front of the blades “like shavings before a giant plane”. The carcasses were found in all attitudes of death, most of them “pulled apart by some unexplainable prehistoric catastrophic disturbance.”[Hibben, Frank, The Lost Americans (New York: Thomas & Crowell Co. 1946)] The killing fields stretched for literally hundreds of miles in every direction.[ibid.] There were trees and animals, layers of peat and moss, twisted and tangled and mangled together as though some Cosmic mixmaster sucked them all in circa 12000 years ago, and then froze them instantly into a solid mass. [Sanderson, Ivan T., “Riddle of the Frozen Giants”, Saturday Evening Post, No. 39, January 16, 1960.] Just north of Siberia entire islands are formed of the bones of Pleistocene animals swept northward from the continent into the freezing Arctic Ocean. One estimate suggests that some ten million animals may be buried along the rivers of northern Siberia. Thousands upon thousands of tusks created a massive ivory trade for the master carvers of China, all from the frozen mammoths and mastodons of Siberia. The famous Beresovka mammoth first drew attention to the preserving properties of being quick-frozen when buttercups were found in its mouth. What kind of terrible event overtook these millions of creatures in a single day? The evidence suggests an enormous tsunami raging across the land, tumbling animals and vegetation together, to be finally quick-frozen for the next 12000 years. But the extinction was not limited to the Arctic, even if the freezing at colder locations preserved the evidence of Nature’s rage. Paleontologist George G. Simpson considers the extinction of the Pleistocene horse in North America to be one of the most mysterious episodes in zoological history, confessing, “no one knows the answer.” He is also honest enough to admit that there is the larger problem of the extinction of many other species in America at the same time. [Simpson, George G., Horses, New York: Oxford University Press) 1961] The horse, giant tortoises living in the Caribbean, the giant sloth, the saber-toothed tiger, the glyptodont and toxodon. These were all tropical animals. These creatures didn’t die because of the “gradual onset” of an ice age, “unless one is willing to postulate freezing temperatures across the equator, such an explanation clearly begs the question.” [Martin, P. S. & Guilday, J. E., “Bestiary for Pleistocene Biologists”, Pleistocene Extinction, Yale University, 1967] Massive piles of mastodon and saber-toothed tiger bones were discovered in Florida. [Valentine, quoted by Berlitz, Charles, The Mystery of Atlantis (New York, 1969)] Mastodons, toxodons, giant sloths and other animals were found in Venezuela quick-frozen in mountain glaciers. Woolly rhinoceros, giant armadillos, giant beavers, giant jaguars, ground sloths, antelopes and scores of other entire species were all totally wiped out at the same time, at the end of the Pleistocene, approximately 12000 years ago. This event was global. The mammoths of Siberia became extinct at the same time as the giant rhinoceros of Europe; the mastodons of Alaska, the bison of Siberia, the Asian elephants and the American camels. It is obvious that the cause of these extinctions must be common to both hemispheres, and that it was not gradual. A “uniformitarian glaciation” would not have caused extinctions because the various animals would have simply migrated to better pasture. What is seen is a surprising event of uncontrolled violence. [Leonard, R. Cedric, Appendix A in “A Geological Study of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge”, Special Paper No. 1 ( Bethany: Cowen Publishing 1979)] In other words, 12000 years ago, something terrible happened – so terrible that life on earth was nearly wiped out in a single day. Harold P. Lippman admits that the magnitude of fossils and tusks encased in the Siberian permafrost present an “insuperable difficulty” to the theory of uniformitarianism, since no gradual process can result in the preservation of tens of thousands of tusks and whole individuals, “even if they died in winter.” [Lippman, Harold E., “Frozen Mammoths”, Physical Geology, (New York 1969)] Especially when many of these individuals have undigested grasses and leaves in their belly. Pleistocene geologist William R. Farrand of the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, who is opposed to catastrophism in any form, states: “Sudden death is indicated by the robust condition of the animals and their full stomachs … the animals were robust and healthy when they died.” [Farrand, William R., “Frozen Mammoths and Modern Geology”, Science, Vol.133, No. 3455, March 17, 1961] Unfortunately, in spite of this admission, this poor guy seems to have been incapable of facing the reality of worldwide catastrophe represented by the millions of bones deposited all over this planet right at the end of the Pleistocene. Hibben sums up the situation in a single statement: “The Pleistocene period ended in death. This was no ordinary extinction of a vague geological period, which fizzled to an uncertain end. This death was catastrophic and all inclusive.” [Hibben, op. cit.] [Quoted from The Secret History of The World] Firestone, West and Warwick-Smith write: “Until recently, the astronomical mainstream was highly critical of Clube and Napier’s giant comet hypothesis. However, the crash of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1994 has led to a change in attitudes. The comet, watched by the world’s observatories, was seen split into 20 pieces and slammed into different parts of the planet over a period of several days. A similar impact on Earth, it hardly needs saying, would have been devastating.” The Carolina Bays date to this time. The Carolina bays are mysterious land features often filled with bay trees and other wetland vegetation. Because of their oval shape and consistent orientation, they are considered by some authorities to be the result of a vast meteor shower that occurred approximately 12,000 years ago. What is most astonishing is the number of them. There are over 500,000 of these shallow basins dotting the coastal plain from Georgia to Delaware. That is a frightening figure. Let me repeat: there are over 500,000 of these shallow basins. “Carolina Bays”: They are found the length of the US eastern seaboard and are not really bays Unlike virtually any other bodies of water or changes in elevation, these topographical features follow a reliable and unmistakable pattern. Carolina Bays are circular, typically stretched, elliptical depressions in the ground, oriented along their long axis from the Northwest to the Southeast. [T]hey are further characterized by an elevated rim of fine sand surrounding the perimeter. Robert Kobres, an independent researcher in Athens, Georgia, has studied Carolina Bays for nearly 20 years in conjunction with his larger interest in impact threats from space. His recent, self-published, investigations have profound consequences for Carolina Bay study and demand research by academia as serious, relevant and previously unexamined new information. The essence of Kobres’ theory is that the search for “debris,” and the comparison of Bays with “traditional” impact craters, falsely and naively assumes that circular craters with extraterrestrial material in them are the only terrestrial evidence of past encounters with objects entering earth’s atmosphere. Kobres goes a logical step further by assuming that forces associated with incoming bodies, principally intense heat, should also leave visible signatures on the earth. And, finally, that physics does not demand that a “collision” of the bodies need necessarily occur to produce enormous change on earth. To verify that such encounters are possible outside of the physics lab, we need look no further than the so-called “Tunguska event.” At the epicenter of the explosion lay not a large crater with a “rock” in it, as might be expected, but nothing more than a number of “neat oval bogs.” The Tunguska literature generally mentions the bogs only in passing, since the researchers examining the site failed to locate any evidence of a meteorite and went on to examine other aspects of the explosion. (The Secret History of The World) Now, how many human deaths ought we to assign to this event? As Firestone, et al discuss, it was global in effect and the evidence of a sharply reduced population of not only animals, but humans, is there in the geological record. But what was the total human population? What kind of numbers can we plug into Lewis’ calculations? Frankly, we don’t know. Undoubtedly, multiplied millions of human beings perished at that time along with the extinction of many animal species. One thing that seems certain is that if these numbers were included in Lewis’ assessment, it would make a significant change in the “average number of deaths per year”. Though, of course, this was a very big event, and those don’t happen every year, or even every century. They happen on a scale of thousands of years and there hasn’t been one like that for 12000 years. 9100 B.C. – Extinction of the Woolly mammoths. 7,500 B.C. – Brings ice age to an end. 5,900 B.C. – Metals found smelted “naturally” which gives rise to humans smelting metals. 4,300 B.C. – Metals smelted naturally; beginning of Homeric “religions.” Possible time for event on which part of the Exodus story is based. 3195 B.C. – Eco-disaster as shown in tree rings. What evidence is there then that something unusual happened around 3100 BC other than the Mayan year zero supposedly relating to 3114 BC? – Newgrange construction. – Flood in paleoclimatic data. – Stonehenge number one – The unification of Egypt – Methane peak (fires). – Cold time according to bristlecone pines. – The coastal menhirs in Brittany. Although anyone of these in itself would not be unusual, the timing of them within a frame of only 100 years, is what makes us suspect that something unusual was going on. The next 1000 years or so were very restless time globally. The postulated bombardments and dust-veils at around 3195 BC, another narrowest tree-ring date, would have wreaked havoc on both the local and global climate, and any and all cultures affected would have taken many decades, maybe even centuries, to recover. The sheer terror that ‘multiple-Tunguska-class fireballs’ would have instilled into the peoples of those times would have understandably motivated them towards building some form of observatories to help predict future meteor showers/storms as a matter of perceived urgency. Stonehenge may very well have been built to help in the watch for comets. And, yet again, we have no numbers of human fatalities to plug into the calculations but they must have been enormous. 3123 B.C. – 29 June – Germany – ‘The clay tablet that tells how an asteroid destroyed Sodom 5,000 years ago’ A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for more than a century has been identified as a witness’s account of an asteroid that destroyed the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah 5,000 years ago. Researchers believe that the tablet’s symbols give a detailed account of how a mile-long asteroid hit the region, causing thousands of deaths and devastating more than one million sq km (386,000 sq miles). The impact, equivalent to more than 1,000 tons of TNT exploding, would have created one of the world’s biggest-ever landslides. The Old Testament story describes how God destroyed the ‘wicked sinners’ of Sodom with fire and brimstone but allowed Lot, the city’s one good man, to flee with his family. The theory is the work of two rocket scientists – Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell – who have spent the past eight years piecing together the archaeological puzzle. At its heart is a clay tablet called the Planisphere, discovered by the Victorian archaeologist Henry Layard in the remains of the library of the Royal Palace at Nineveh. Using computers to recreate the night sky thousands of years ago, they have pinpointed the sighting described on the tablet – a 700 BC copy of notes of the night sky as seen by a Sumerian astrologer in one of the world’s earliest-known civilisations – to shortly before dawn on June 29 in the year 3123BC. Half the tablet records planet positions and clouds, while the other half describes the movement of an object looking like a ‘stone bowl’ travelling quickly across the sky. The description matches a type of asteroid known as an Aten type, which orbits the Sun close to the Earth. Its trajectory would have put it on a collision course with the Otz Valley. [In Germany; in other words. In short, the story wasn’t about Abraham and Lot in Palestine!] ‘It came in at a very low angle – around six degrees – and then clipped a mountain called Gaskogel around 11 km from Köfels,’ said Mr Hempsell. ‘This caused it to explode – and as it travelled down the valley it became a fireball. ‘When it hit Köfels it created enormous pressures which pulverised the rock and caused the landslide. But because it wasn’t solid, there was no crater.’ The explosion would have created a mushroom cloud, while a plume of smoke would have been seen for hundreds of miles. Mr Hempsell said another part of the tablet, which is 18 cm across and shaped like a bowl, describes a plume of smoke around dawn the following morning. ‘You need to know the context before you can translate it,’ said Mr Hempsell, of Bristol University. Geologists have dated the landslide to around 9,000 years ago, far earlier than the Sumerian record. However, Mr Hempsell, who has published a book on the theory, believes contaminated samples from the asteroid may have confused previous dating attempts. Academics were also quick to disagree with the findings, which were published in A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels’s Impact Event. John Taylor, a retired expert in Near Eastern archaeology at the British Museum, said there was no evidence that the ancient Sumerians were able to make such accurate astronomical records, while our knowledge of Sumerian language was incomplete. ‘I remain unconvinced by these results,’ he added. 2345 B.C. – Eco-disaster focused in the Levant as shown in tree-rings. End of Egyptian Old Dynasty? The French archaeologist, Marie-Agnes Courty, presented a paper at the Society for Inter-Disciplinary Studies’ July 1997 conference at Cambridge University, in which she first detailed the findings of excavations at a site in northern Syria, at Tell Leilan. This was the first time ever that an archaeological excavation had been initiated where the main purpose was to examine the stratigraphical record of the area with a view to searching for evidence of ‘scorched earth’ due to a suspected episode of extra-terrestrial ‘fireball bombardment’. She and her team found much evidence of microscopic glass spherules typical of melted sand and rock which is caused by the intense heat resulting from an asteroid impact or air-burst. She recommended further excavations there and at other sites. It would make sense that attention should be focussed on sites once occupied at dates where the tree-ring chronologies show evidence of abrupt climate changes – as at Tell Leilan in northern Syria, where the ‘burn event’ has now been dated by Courty as immediately prior to 2345 BC, a ‘narrowest tree-ring’ date. Another with no human fatality numbers included in the calculations. Scientists have found the first evidence that a devastating meteor impact in the Middle East might have triggered the mysterious collapse of civilisations more than 4,000 years ago. Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile- wide circular depression which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with the violence equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs. Today’s crater lies on what would have been shallow sea 4,000 years ago, and any impact would have caused devastating fires and flooding. The catastrophic effect of these could explain the mystery of why so many early cultures went into sudden decline around 2300 BC. – The crater’s faint outline was found by Dr Sharad Master, a geologist at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, on satellite images of the Al ‘Amarah region, about 10 miles north-west of the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates and home of the Marsh Arabs. (Robert Matthews Science Correspondent, The Telegraph – London 11-4-1) 1628 B.C. – “The Exodus” – Biblical scholars have been debating the date of the so-called Exodus for hundreds of years. The most recent researches have indicated that there was no exodus as depicted in the Bible, it was all made up by post-exilic priests – to create a “history” justifying their elite status and privileges. More than that, based on historical knowledge of how things were done in those times, they probably were not even related to any of the people “carried away to Babylon” in the first place. And so, it seems logical to speculate that the background information contained in the Exodus story – and other related stories in the Bible, such as the collapse of Jericho and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – were legendary stories of events that occurred around the time of the eruption of Thera which has been fairly securely fixed around 1600 B.C. plus or minus 50 years. Mike Baillie reports that whatever happened at this period of history that includes this monstrous eruption, it was global in effect as is shown in the tree-ring chronologies. In other words, more was going on than just a volcanic eruption. Again, no numbers of fatalities to plug into the calculations though there are many ancient reports of plague and mass death and Egyptian records report many strange sky, weather, and plague phenomena. 1159 B.C. – Collapse of Shang and Mycenean cultures. Collapse of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean region. Possible origin of more “Exodus” stories amalgamated with older tales of similar events. Wikipedia tells us: The Bronze Age collapse is the name given by those historians who see the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, as violent, sudden and culturally disruptive, expressed by the collapse of palace economies of the Aegean and Anatolia, replaced after a hiatus by the isolated village cultures of the Dark Age period of history of the Ancient Middle East. Mike Baillie points out that a series of impacts/overhead explosions, would more adequately explain the longstanding problem of the end of the Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 12th century BC. At that time, many – uncountable – major sites were destroyed and totally burned and it has all been blamed on those supernatural “Sea Peoples.” If that was the case, if it was invasion and conquest, there ought to at least be some evidence for that, like dead warriors or signs of warfare… but for the most part, that is not the case. There were almost no bodies found, and no precious objects except those that were hidden away as though someone expected to return for them, or didn’t have time to retrieve them. The people who fled (extra-terrestrial events often have precursor activities and warnings because a comet can often be observed approaching for some time) were probably also killed in the act of fleeing and the result was total abandonment and total destruction of the cities in question. John Lewis did not include this in his calculations either. 207 B.C. – Scientists Say Comet Smashed Into Southern Germany In 200 BC A comet or asteroid smashed into modern-day Germany some 2,200 years ago, unleashing energy equivalent to thousands of atomic bombs, scientists reported on Friday. The 1.1-kilometre (0.7-mile) diameter rock whacked into southeastern Bavaria, leaving an “exceptional field” of meteorites and impact craters that stretch from the town of Altoetting to an area around Lake Chiemsee, the scientists said in an article in the latest issue of US magazine Astronomy. Colliding with the Earth’s atmosphere at more than 43,000 kms per hour, the space rock probably broke up at an altitude of 70 kms), they believe. The biggest chunk smashed into the ground with a force equivalent to 106 million tonnes of TNT, or 8,500 Hiroshima bombs. “The forest beneath the blast would have ignited suddenly, burning until the impact’s blast wave shut down the conflagration,” the investigators said. “Dust may have been blown into the stratosphere, where it would have been transported around the globe easily… The region must have been devastated for decades.” The biggest crater is now a circular lake called Tuettensee, measuring 370 metres (1,200 feet) across. Scores of smaller craters and other meteorite impacts can be spotted in an elliptical field, inflicted by other debris. The study was carried out by the Chiemgau Impact Research Team, whose five members included a mineralogist, a geologist and an astronomer. Additional evidence comes from local discoveries of Celtic artefacts, which appear to have been scorched on one side. That helped to establish an approximate date for the impact of between 480 and 30 BC. The figure may be fine-tuned to around 200 BC, thanks to tree-ring evidence from preserved Irish oaks, which show a slowing in growth around 207 BC. This may have been caused by a veil of dust kicked up the impact, which filtered out sunlight. In addition, Roman authors at about the same time wrote about showers of stones falling from the skies and terrifying the populace. The object is more likely to have been a comet than an asteroid, given the length of the ellipse and scattered debris, the report says. 44 B.C. – Pliny states that there were “Portentous and protracted eclipses of the sun occur, such as the one after the murder of Caesar the dictator….” Yet there were no solar eclipses visible from anywhere in the Roman Empire from Feb. of 48 B.C. through Dec. of 41 B.C., inclusive. There was a spectacular daylight comet in 44 B.C., perhaps the most famous comet in antiquity. A dust veil occluded the sky over Italy in the spring of 44, and has often been attributed to an (unconfirmed) eruption of Mt Etna. There are sulfate deposits in the Greenland ice cores for this year and there is tree ring evidence from North America, where dendrochronology points to a climatic change in the late 40’s B.C. What hit and where it hit, has yet to be determined, and whether or not there was death and destruction somewhere on the globe, is unknown. John S. Lewis does not include this event in his calculations. 60 – 70 AD – The destruction of Jerusalem. The story Josephus tells of the sixties is one of famine, social unrest, institutional deterioration, bitter internal conflicts, class warfare, banditry, insurrections, intrigues, betrayals, bloodshed, and the scattering of Judeans throughout Palestine. There were wars, rumors of wars for the better part of ten years and Josephus reports portents, including a brilliant daylight in the middle of the night! (Burton Mack, A Myth of Innocence: Mark and Christian Origins, 1988, 2006) We recognize that brilliant daylight at night from the Tunguska event. Josephus gives several portents of the evil to befall Jerusalem and the temple. He described a star resembling a sword, a comet, a light shining in the temple, a cow giving birth to a lamb at the moment it was to be sacrificed in the Jerusalem Temple, armies fighting in the sky, and a voice from the Holy of Holies declaring, “We are departing” (Josephus, Jewish Wars, 6). (Obviously, the voice was apocryphal.) Some of these portents are mentioned by other contemporary historians, Tacitus for example. However, Tacitus, in book five of his Histories, castigated the superstitious Jews for not recognizing and offering expiations for the portents to avert the disasters. He put the destruction of Jerusalem down to the stupidity or willful ignorance of the Jews themselves in not offering the appropriate sacrifices. Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city [Jerusalem], and a comet, that continued a whole year… (Josephus, Jewish Wars 6.3) In short, it very well may be that the eschatological writings in the New Testament, the very formation of the Myth of Jesus, was based on cometary events of the time, including a memory of the “Star in the East.” The destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem may very well have been an “act of God,” as reported by Mark in his Gospel. 312 – Italy – A team of geologists believes it has found the incoming space rock’s impact crater, and dating suggests its formation coincided with the celestial vision said to have converted a future Roman emperor to Christianity. The small, circular Cratere del Sirente in central Italy is clearly an impact crater, said the geologists because its shape fits and it is also surrounded by numerous smaller, secondary craters, gouged out by ejected debris, as expected from impact models. Radiocarbon dating puts the crater’s formation at about the right time to have been witnessed by Constantine and there are magnetic anomalies detected around the secondary craters – possibly due to magnetic fragments from the meteorite. It would have struck the Earth with the force of a small nuclear bomb, perhaps a kiloton in yield. It would have looked like a nuclear blast, with a mushroom cloud and shockwaves. 476 A.D. – I-hsi and Chin-ling, China – “Thundering chariots” “like granite” fell to ground; vegetation was scorched. 526 – Great Antioch earthquake …those caught in the earth beneath the buildings were incinerated and sparks of fire appeared out of the air and burned everyone they struck like lightning. The surface of the earth boiled and foundations of buildings were struck by thunderbolts thrown up by the earthquakes and were burned to ashes by fire… it was a tremendous and incredible marvel with fire belching out rain, rain falling from tremendous furnaces, flames dissolving into showers … as a result Antioch became desolate … in this terror up to 250,000 people perished. (John Malalas quoted by Jeffreys, E., Jeffreys, M. and Scott, R. 1986, “The Chronicle of John Malalas”, Byzantina Australiensia, Australian Assoc. Byzantine Studies 4, Melbourne.) 536 – 545 – reduced sunlight, mists or “dry fogs, crop failures, famines in China and the Mediterranean, and plagues.” The Praetorian Prefect Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator wrote a letter documenting the conditions. All of us are observing, as it were, a blue coloured sun; we marvel at bodies which cast no mid-day shadow, and at that strength of intensest heat reaching extreme and dull tepidity … So we have had a winter without storms, spring without mildness, summer without heat … The seasons have changed by failing to change; and what used to be achieved by mingled rains cannot be gained from dryness only. Procopius of Caesarea, a Byzantine, wrote: And it came about during this year that a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed. John of Ephesus, cleric and a historian, wrote: The sun was dark and its darkness lasted for eighteen months; each day it shone for about four hours; and still this light was only a feeble shadow … the fruits did not ripen and the wine tasted like sour grapes. In the wake of this inexplicable darkness, crops failed and famine struck. And then, pestilence. But here we mean “pestilence” as Jacme d’Agramaont, a doctor writing in 1348 described it in reference to the “Black Death”. Agramont said nothing concerning the term epidemia, but he extensively developed what he meant by pestilencia. He gave this latter term a very peculiar etymology, in accordance with a from of knowledge established by Isidore of Seville (570=636) in his Etymologiae, which came to be widely accepted throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. He split the term pestilencia up into three syllables, each having a particular meaning: pes = tempesta: ‘storm, tempest’; te = ‘temps, time’, lencia = clardat: ‘brightness, light’; hence, he concluded, the pestilencia was ‘the time of tempest caused by light from the stars.’ [Jon Arrizabalaga, see Part One] During the time of Justinian, this “pestilence” ravaged Europe, reducing the population of the Roman empire by a third, killing four-fifths of the citizens of Constantinople, reaching as far East as China and as far Northwest as Great Britain. John of Ephesus documented the progress of this “pestilence” in AD 541-542in Constantinople, where city officials gave up trying to count the dead after two hundred thirty thousand: The city stank with corpses as there were neither litters nor diggers, and corpses were heaped up in the streets … It might happen that [a person] went out to market to buy necessities and while he was standing and talking or counting his change, suddenly the end would overcome the buyer here and the seller there, the merchandise remaining in the middle with the payment for it, without there being either buyer or seller to pick it up. This was also the time assigned to the legendary King Arthur, the loss of the Grail, and the manifestation of the Wasteland. Although scholars place the historical King Arthur in the fifth century, the date of his death is given as AD 539. According to Mike Baillie, the imagery from the Arthurian legend is in accordance with the appearance of a comet and subsequent famine and plague: the “Waste Land” of legend. Ireland’s St. Patrick stories feature a wasteland as well. And although St. Patrick is credited with ridding Ireland of snakes, we might consider that there never were snakes in Ireland, and that snakes and dragons are images associated with comets. Until that point in time, the Britons had held control of post-Roman Britain, keeping the Anglo-Saxons isolated and suppressed. After the Romans were gone, the Britons maintained the status quo, living in towns, with elected officials, and carrying on trade with the empire. After AD 536, the year reported as the “death of Arthur”, the Britons, the ancient Cymric empire that at one time had stretched from Cornwall in the south to Strathclyde in the north, all but disappeared, and were replaced by Anglo-Saxons. There is much debate among scholars as to whether the Anglo-Saxons killed all of the Britons, or assimilated them. Here we must consider that they were victims of possibly many overhead cometary explosions which wiped out most of the population of Europe, plunging it into the Dark Ages which were, apparently, really DARK, atmospherically speaking. The mystery of the origins of the red dragon symbol, now on the flag of Wales, has perplexed many historians, writers and romanticists, and the archæological community generally has refrained from commenting on this most unusual emblem, claiming it does not concern them. In the ancient Welsh language it is known as ‘Draig Goch’ – ‘red dragon’, and in “Y Geiriadur Cymraeg Prifysgol Cymru”, the “University of Wales Welsh Dictionary”, (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1967, p. 1082) there are translations for the various uses of the Welsh word ‘draig’. Amongst them are common uses of the word, which is today taken just to mean a ‘dragon’, but in times past it has also been used to refer to ‘Mellt Distaw’ – (sheet lightning), and also ‘Mellt Didaranau’ – (lightning unaccompanied by thunder). But the most interesting common usage of the word in earlier times, according to this authoritative dictionary, is ‘Maen Mellt’ the word used to refer to a ‘meteorite’. And this makes sense, as the Welsh word ‘maen’ translates as ‘stone’, while the Welsh word ‘mellt’ translates as ‘lightning’ – so literally a ‘lightning-stone’. That the ancient language of the Welsh druids has words still in use today which have in the past been used to describe both a dragon and also a meteorite, is something that greatly helps us to follow the destructive ‘trail of the dragon’ as it was described in early Welsh ‘riddle-poems’. The exact nature and sequence of events in the mid-6th. century A.D. that gave rise to the period we refer to as the European ‘Dark Age’ is still a matter for speculation amongst historians and archæologists. Over the past 20 years or so, certain paleo-climatologists have begun comparing notes with archæologists and astronomers, and interestingly, in the absence of written records, many have begun to look a little more closely at mythology in their efforts to corroborate the findings of their researches. While much of this recent bout of inter-disciplinary brainstorming has focussed on the 6th. AD start of the European Dark Age, earlier dates are also of great interest to those embroiled in this veritable ‘paradigm shift’.[…] In recent years certain astronomers have increasingly come to appreciate that encoded in the folklore and mythologies of many cultures are the accurate observations of ancient skywatchers. Almost all tell of times when death and mass destruction came from the skies, events that are often portrayed as ‘celestial battles’ between what they variously depicted as ‘the Gods’. And curiously the imagery in these ‘myths’ have many common features, even between the mythologies of cultures widely spaced in time and location.[The European ‘Dark Age’ And Welsh Oral Tradition] Out on the Asian steppes, whatever happened in AD 536 caused political upheaval. The horse-based economy of the warlike Avars foundered, and their vassals, the cattle-herding Turks, overthrew them. Driven from the steppes, the Avars joined forces with the Slavs in Hungary on the borders of the Roman empire. Gildas, who was writing at approximately 540 AD, says that the island of Britain was on fire from sea to sea” … until it had burned almost the whole surface of the island and was licking the western ocean with its fierce red tongue.”[5] . In “The Life of St. Teilo” contained in the Llandaf Charters, of St. Teilo, who had recently been made Bishop of Llandaf Cathedral in Morganwg, South Wales, it says: ” … however he could not long remain, on account of the pestilence which nearly destroyed the whole nation. It was called the Yellow Pestilence, because it occasioned all persons who were seized by it to be yellow and without blood, and it appeared to men a column of a watery cloud, having one end trailing along the ground, and the other above, proceeding in the air, and passing through the whole country like a shower going through the bottom of valleys. Whatever living creatures it touched with its pestiferous blast, either immediately died, or sickened for death … and so greatly did the aforesaid destruction rage throughout the nation, that it caused the country to be nearly deserted”. St. Teilo is recorded as having left South Wales for Brittany to escape the Yellow Pestilence, and that it lasted for some 11 years. In 540, in Yemen, the Great Dam of Marib, dating from around the seventh century B.C., one of the engineering wonders of the ancient world and a central part of the south Arabian civilization, broke and began to collapse. By 550 AD, the dam was a complete loss and thousands of people migrated to another oasis on the Arabian peninsula, Medina. The Arab tribes, traumatized by the environmental disasters around them, began to think of conquest for the sake of survival. In 610 AD, a new leader unified them: Muhammad. Although a great many historical changes happened in the seventh century, such as the Roman war with Persia, the rise of Islam, rebellion and civil war in the Roman empire, and the advance of the Slavs driven by the Avars, it can be said that the seeds of these changes, the destruction of the old that made way for the new, can be traced to the environmental catastrophe of 536 AD. John Lewis does not include any estimates of the death and destruction occurring at that time in his “average number of annual deaths by comets.” 580 – France – Great fireball and blast; Orleans and nearby towns burned. 588 – June 25 – China – “Red-colored object” fell with “noise like thunder” into furnace; exploded; burned several houses 616 – Jan. 14 – China – Ten deaths reported in China from meteorite shower; seige towers destroyed 679 – Coldingham, England – Monastery destroyed by “fire from heaven” as reported in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 764 – Nara, Japan – Meteorite strikes house. 810 – Upper Saxony – Charlemagne’s horse startled by meteor; throws him to the ground. 1000 – Alberta, Canada – The date of this meteor strike is estimated. “What local hunters in Whitecourt thought for years was a sinkhole is actually the crater left behind by a meteor that fell to earth 1,000 years ago and is now attracting international attention from researchers. The crater is 36 metres wide and six metres deep, which is small as far as most craters go, … Herd thinks the meteor came from the asteroid belt and measured one metre across. However, researchers have so far found 74 different pieces of the original meteor – which is called a meteorite once it hits the ground – scattered around the crater, some up to 70 metres away.” LINK 1064 – Chang-chou, China – Daytime fireball, meteorite fall; fences burned. 1178 – 18 June on the Julian calendar, 25 June, Gregorian In this year, on the Sunday before the Feast of St. John the Baptist, after sunset when the moon had first become visible a marvelous phenomenon was witnessed by some five or more men who were sitting there facing the moon. Now there was a bright new moon, and as usual in that phase its horns were tileted toward the east; and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of the divisin a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the moon which was below writhed, as it were, in anxiety, and, to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the moon throbbed like a wounded snake. Afterwards it resumed its proper state. This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, the flame assuming various twisting shapes at random and then returning to normal. Then after these transformations the moon from horn to horn, that is along its whole lengthe, took on a blackish appearance. The present writer was given this report by men who saw it with their own eyes, and are prepared to stake ther honour on an oath that they have made no addition or falsification in the above narrative. (Gervase of Canterbury) 1321- 1368 – O-chia district, China – Iron rain kills people, animals, damages house. 1347 – 1348 – Black Death – The Black Death – not included in John Lewis’ calculations – killed about half the population of Western Europe. The effects of this event were possibly global though the number of deaths worldwide is unknown. 1348 – 25 Jan. – Earthquake in Carinthia, 16 cities destroyed, fire fell from heaven; over 40,000 dead. John Lewis does not include this event in his calculations. 1369 – Ho-t’ao, China – “Large star” fell, starts fire, soldiers injured. 1430 – June – New Zealand – A huge comet struck the ocean less than a hundred miles from the Chinese fleet of Zhou Man. 173 wrecks have been counted as destroyed by this event. The comet incinerated many ships and hurled the blazing wrecks onto New Zealand South Island and the East coasts of Australia, and across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Chinese and Mayan astronomers describe a large blue comet seen in Canis Minor for 26 days in June 1430 – a date compatible with Professor Bryant’s (1410 – 1480) evidence. In November 2003 Dallas Abbott and her team announced they had found where the comet crashed – between Campbell Island and New Zealand South Island. Deaths? Probably in the multiple thousands. A mega-tsunami struck southeast Asia 700 years ago rivaling the deadly one in 2004, two teams of geologists said after finding sedimentary evidence in coastal marshes. Researchers in Thailand and Indonesia wrote in two articles in Nature magazine that the tsunami hit around 1400, long before historical records of earthquakes in the region began. Which of course, leads us to ask the question: was the 2004 mega-tsunami the result of a comet/asteroid strike? 1490 – 3 Feb. – Ch’ing-yang, Shansi, China – Stones fell like rain; more than 10,000 killed. 1492 – Ensisheim, Alsace – 280-pound meteorite landed; in the same year Columbus reported “a marvelous branch of fire” that fell into the sea as he crossed the Atlantic. 1511 – 14 Sept. – Cremona, Lombardy, Italy – Monk killed with several birds, a sheep. 1516 – May – Nantan, China – “During summertime in May of Jiajing 11th year, stars fell from the northwest direction, five to six fold long, waving like snakes and dragons. They were as bright as lightning and disappeared in seconds”. Many of them were recovered by local farmers in 1958 when China needed steel for the “Great Leap Forward” advocated by Mao Zedong. They have coarse octahedral structure and contain 92.35% iron & 6.96% nickel, belonging to IIICD classification of Wasson et al (1980)’s. Most Nantan meteorites weight 150 to 1500 kg. Due to the humid condition, smaller pieces buried in soils of lower valleys have been extensively weathered and oxidized into limonite. 1620 – Punjab, India – Hot iron fell, burned grass; made into dagger knife, two sabres. 1631 – Fall of Magedeburg, Germany [A] grand storm-wind picked up, the town was inflamed at all possible places, so that even little aid (rescue) was of help (appreciated). … then I saw the whole town of Magdeburg, except dome, monastery and New Market, lying in embers and ashes, which raged only about 3 or 3 1/2 hours, from which I deduced God’s strange omnipotence and punishment. (Geoffrey Mortimer, German Life and Letters 54:2, “Style and Fictionalisation in Eyewitness Personal Accounts of the Thirty Years War”) A “second sun” was seen on and around May 29, 1630, and on May 20, 1631, one year later, Magdeburg fell as described above. The standard historical description of the Fall of Magdeburg goes pretty much as follows: The fall of Magdeburg horrified Europe. The city had been starved and then was bombarded unmercifully. The artillery shelling grew so bad, the town caught on fire. Over 20,000 of the citizens perished in the siege and the cataclysm that ended it. The city itself was burned to the ground. The cruel and pointless devastation marked a new low, an act abhorred by a generation well accustomed to horrors. 1639 – China – Large stone fell in market; tens killed; tens of houses destroyed. 1648 – Ship near Malacca – Two sailors reported killed on board ship en route from Japan to Sicily. 1654 – Milano, Italy – Monk reported killed by meteorite. 1661 – 9 August – China – Meteorite smashes through roof; no injuries. 1670 – 7 Nov. – China – Meteorite fall, breaks roof beam of house 1761 – Chamblan, France – House struck and burned by meteorite. 1780 – Canada? – In the midst of the Revolutionary War, darkness descends on New England at midday. Many people think Judgment Day is at hand. It will be remembered as New England’s Dark Day. Diaries of the preceding days mention smoky air and a red sun at morning and evening. Around noon this day, an early darkness fell: Birds sang their evening songs, farm animals returned to their roosts and barns, and humans were bewildered. Some went to church, many sought the solace of the tavern, and more than a few nearer the edges of the darkened area commented on the strange beauty of the preternatural half-light. One person noted that clean silver had the color of brass. It was darkest in northeastern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine, but it got dusky through most of New England and as far away as New York. At Morristown, New Jersey, Gen. George Washington noted it in his diary. In the darkest area, people had to take their midday meals by candlelight. A Massachusetts resident noted, “In some places, the darkness was so great that persons could not see to read common print in the open air.” In New Hampshire, wrote one person, “A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes was equally invisible with the blackest velvet.” At Hartford, Col. Abraham Davenport opposed adjourning the Connecticut legislature, thus: “The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause of an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty.” When it was time for night to fall, the full moon failed to bring light. Even areas that had seen a pale sun in the day could see no moon at all. No moon, no stars: It was the darkest night anyone had seen. Some people could not sleep and waited through the long hours to see if the sun would ever rise again. They witnessed its return the morning of May 20. Many observed the anniversary a year later as a day of fasting and prayer. Professor Samuel Williams of Harvard gathered reports from throughout the affected areas to seek an explanation. A town farther north had reported “a black scum like ashes” on rainwater collected in tubs. A Boston observer noted the air smelled like a “malt-house or coal-kiln.” Williams noted that rain in Cambridge fell “thick and dark and sooty” and tasted and smelled like the “black ash of burnt leaves.” As if from a forest fire to the north? Without railroad or telegraph, people would not know: No news could come sooner than delivered on horseback, assuming the wildfire was even near any European settlements in the vast wilderness. But we know today that the darkness had moved southwest at about 25 mph. And we know that forest fires in Canada in 1881, 1950 and 2002 each cast a pall of smoke over the northeastern United States. A definitive answer came in 2007. In the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Erin R. McMurry of the University of Missouri forestry department and co-authors combined written accounts with fire-scar evidence from Algonquin Provincial Park in eastern Ontario to document a massive wildfire in the spring of 1780 as the “likely source of the infamous Dark Day of 1780.” LINK Sounds like an impact event. 1790 – 24 July – Barbotan and Agen, Gascony, France – Meteorite crushes cottage, kills farmer and some cattle. 1794 – 16 June – Siena, Italy – Child’s hat hit; child uninjured 1798 – 19 Dec. – Benares, India – Building struck by meteorite 1801 – 30 Oct. – Suffolk, England – “Dwelling-house of Mr. Woodrosse, miller, near Horringer-mill, Suffolk, was set on fire by a meteor, and entirely consumed, together with a stable adjoining.” 1803- 4 July – E. Norton, England – White Bull public house struck, chimney knocked down, grass burned, flight of object nearly horizontal. 1803 – 13 Dec – Massing, Czech. – Building struck by meteorite. 1810 – July – Shahabad, India – Great stone fell five villages burned; several killed. 1811 – 1812 Submitted by a reader: From: The Comet Book – A Guide For the Return of Halley’s Cometby Robert D. Chapman and John C Brandt published in 1984 – In December, 1811, a series of earthquakes began that rocked over three hundred thousand square miles of eastern North America. The great New Madrid Earthquake was just one of the many events of late 1811 and 1812 that followed quickly on the heels of the Great Comet of 1811. First observed from America in late 1811, the comet was described as bright and slightly smaller than the full moon, including its tail. Newspapers in the young republic picked up on the comet and predicted that it was an omen of evil times. Sure enough, a string of disasters, nature and otherwise followed. Though the epicenter of the earthquakes was near a small town on the Mississippi River – New Madrid, Missouri – the numerous shocks were felt as far away as New York and Florida. According to one source, Richmond, Virginia and Boston were shaken so violently by the December 16 shocks that church bells rang. It is said that in some places the current in the Mississippi River flowed backward. The great naturalist John James Audubon was in Kentucky when the first tremor struck. Initially he thought the roar was a tornado and headed for shelter. Audubon and others reported strange darkenings and brightenings in the sky. Jared Brookes, a native of Louisville, Kentucky kept accurate records of all the shocks that he experienced. Between December, 1811, and May, 1812, he tabulated over two thousand separate tremors. Based on the historical evidence, Charles Richter (inventor of the Richter scale used to measure the strength of earthquakes) had estimated that there were at least three severe shocks that exceeded magnitude eight on his scale. The New Madrid Earthquakes thus stand as one of the most severe, if not the most severe, series of quakes recorded in U.S. history. The New Madrid Earthquakes were not the only disaster to take place in 1811 and 1812. On December 26, 1811, a fire broke out in the new theater in Richmond, which was packed with people. Governor George Smith and almost eighty others perished. The incidents leading to the War of 1812 were moving inexorably forward: the Battle of Tippecanoe; the Guerriere incident in which the British impressed an American seaman from an American vessel onto their warship Guerriere. To round out the problems, severe weather plagued the young republic. All told, 1812 was not a good year. An interesting contrast to the disasters of 1811-1812 comes from the world of wine. The year 1811 produced a particularly good vintage. In honor of the great comet, the wine was referred to as vin de la comete (comet wine). Not everything from the year was bad! This article discusses the possibility that the New Madrid Earthquake of 1811 may be related to the Great Comet of that year. Most of the article focuses on the possibility of finding an impact zone related to these events. The evidence seems inconclusive, but based on what I’ve read, this may be an incorrect approach to understanding the historical data since comets do have the tenancy to explode in the atmosphere causing much havoc on the ground. In fact, there appears to be eyewitness testimony from people who lived through this event of a falling charcoal-like substance as well as visible undulations of the earth itself. An eyewitness report: “…the earth was observed to be as it were rolling in waves of a few feet in height, with visible depressions between. By and by these waves or swells were seen to burst, throwing up large volumes of water, sand and a species of charcoal…” This evidence may imply an overhead explosion of sorts, which could have also set off some of the earthquakes in this region? Another point that should be made is the reference to human conflictduring this time period. Obviously the War of 1812 between the American republic and the British stands out as one example. Another would be Napoleon’s march into Russia and his eventual defeat during an abnormally cold winter. A quote within the link above states, As Napoleon marched into Russia with an army of seven hundred thousand strong, the Great Comet [of 1811] developed a tail one hundred million miles long. Following initial victories Napoleon overextended himself. After the invasion of Moscow he ran short of supplies and the winter proved unforgiving. Hundreds of thousands died while the comet performed frightening acrobatics by splitting in two. This may go along with Victor Clube’s analysis of the association between comets and turbulence within human civilization. 1823 – 10 Nov. – Waseda, Japan – Meteorite strikes house. 1825 – 16 Jan. – Oriang, India – Man reported killed, woman injured by meteorite fall. 1827 – 27 Feb. – Mhow, India – Man struck on arm, tree broken by meteorite. 1835 – 13 Nov. – Belley, Dept. de l’Ain, France – Fireball sets fire to barn. 1836 – 11 Dec. Macaé, Brazil – Several homes damaged, several oxen killed by meteorite. 1841 – Chiloe Archipel, Chile – Fire caused by meteorite fall. 1845 – 6 May – Ch’ang-shou, Szechwan, China – Stone meteorite damages more than 100 tombs. 1847 – 14 July – Braunau, Bohemia – A 37-lb iron smashes through roof of house. 1850 – 17 Oct. – Szu-mao, China – Meteorite falls through roof of house. 1858 – 9 Dec. Ausson, France – Building hit by meteorite. 1860 – 1 May – New Concord, Ohio – Colt struck and killed by meteorite. 1868 – 8 Aug. – Pillistfer, Estonia – Building struck. 1869 – 1 Jan – Hessle, Sweden – Man missed by few meters. 1870 – 23 Jan. – Nedagolla, India – Man stunned by meteorite. (Don’t know if this means the man was “amazed” or if he was hit and physically knocked senseless.) 1871 – 8 Oct. – Great Chicago Fire. See Comet Biela and Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow (Another item that John Lewis has not entered into his calculations.) 1872 – Banbury, England – Fireball fells trees, wall 1874 – 30 June – Chin-kuei Shan, Ming-tung Li, China – Thunderstorm; huge stone fell, crushed cottage, killed child. 1876 – 16 Feb – Judesegeri, India – Water tank struck by meteorite. 1877 – 3 Jan. – Warrenton, Missouri – Man missed by few meters. 1877 – 21 Jan. – De Cewsville, Ontario – Man missed by few meters. 1879 – 14 Jan. – Newtown, Indiana – Leonidas Grover reported killed in bed by meteorite. (possible hoax in Paducah Daily News). 1879 – 31 Jan. – Dun-le-Poelier, France – Farmer reported killed by meteorite. 1879 – 12 Nov. – Huan-hsiang, China – Rain of stones; many houses damaged; sulfur smell. 1881 – 19 Nov. Grosliebenthal, Russia – Man reported injured by meteorite. 1887 – 19 March – Barque J.P.A., N. Atlantic – Fireball “fell into water very close alongside”. 1893 – 22 Nov. – Zabrodii, Russia – Building struck by meteorite. 1897 – 11 Mar – New Martinsville, West Virginia – A man was reportedly struck, a horse killed, and walls pierced. 1906 – 4 Nov. – Diep River, S. Africa – Building struck 1907 – 5 Sept – Hsin-p’ai Wei, Weng-Li – Stone fell; whole family crushed to death 1907 – 7 Dec. – Bellefontaine, Ohio – Meteorite starts fire, destroys house. 1908 – 30 June – Tunguska valley, Siberia – Two reportedly killed, many injured by Tunguska blast. 1909 – 29 May – Shepard, Texas – Meteor drops through house. 1910 – 27 April – Mexico – Giant meteor bursts, falls in mountains, starts forest fire. 1911 – 16 June – Kilbourn, Wisconsin – Meteorite struck barn 1911 – 28 June – Nakhla, Egypt – Dog struck and killed by meteorite 1912 – 19 July – Holbrook, Arizona – Building struck; 14,000 stones fell; man missed by a few meters 1914 – 9 Jan. – W. France – Meteor explosions break windows 1914 – 22 Nov – Batavia, New York – Meteorites damage farm 1916 – 18 Jan. – Baxter, Missouri – Building struck 1917 – 3 Dec – Strathmore, Scotland – Building struck 1918 – 30 June – Richardton, N. Dakota – Building struck 1921 – 15 July – Berkshire Hills, Mass. – Meteor starts fire in Berkshires 1921 – 21 Dec. – Beirut, Syria – Building hit 1922 – 2 Feb. – Baldwyn, Mississippi – Man missed by 3 meters 1922 – 24 April – Barnegat, New Jersey – Rocked buildings, shattered windows, clouds of noxious gas – overhead explosion of comet fragment. 1922 – 30 May – Nagai, Japan – Person missed by several meters 1924 – 6 July – Johnstown, Colorado – Man missed being hit by 1 meter 1927 – 28 April – Aba, Japan – Girl struck and injured by “dubious” (?) meteorite 1929 – 8 Dec. Zvezvan, Yugoslavia – Meteor hits bridal party, kills 1 1930 – 13 Aug. – Brazil – The “Rio Curaca event.” Brazlilian “Tunguska event”; fire and “depopulation” – “An ear-piercing “whistling” sound, which might be understood as being a manifestation of the electrophonic phenomena which have been discussed in WGN over the past few years; the sun appearing to be “blood-red” before the explosion. The event occurred at about 8h local time, so that the bolide probably came from the sunward side of the earth. If the object were spawning dust and meteoroids– that is, it was cometary in nature–then, since low-inclination, eccentric orbits produce radiants close to the sun, it might be that the solar coloration (which, in this explanation, would have been witnessed elsewhere) was due to such dust in the line of sight to the sun. In short, the earth was within the tail of the small comet. There was a fall of fine ash prior to the explosion, which covered the surrounding vegetation with a blanket of white. 1931 – 10 July – Malinta, Ohio – Blast, crater, smell of sulfur, windows broken in farmhouse; four telephone poles snapped, wires down; overhead cometary fragment explosion 1931 – 8 Sept. – Hagerstown, Maryland – Meteor crashes through roof in Hagerstown 1932 – 4 Aug. – Sao Christovao, Brazil – Fall destroys warehouse roof 1932 – 10 Aug – Archie, Missouri – Homestead struck, person missed by less than 1 meter 1933 – 24 Feb. – Stratford, Texas – Bright fireball, 4-lb metallic mass falls, grass burned 1933 – 8 Aug. – Sioux Co., Nebraska – Man missed by a few meters. 1934 – 16 Feb. – Texas – Pilot swerves to avoid crash with fireball 1934 – 18 Feb – Seville, Spain – House struck, burned. 1934 – 28 Sept. – California – Pilot escapes fireball shower (one assumes this means he performed evasive maneuvers) 1935 – 11 Aug. – Briggsdale, Colorado – Man narrowly missed by meteorite 1935 – 11 Dec. – 21h local time – British Guyana – Lat: 2 deg 10min North, Long: 59 deg 10 min West, close to Marudi Mountain. A report from Serge A. Korff of the Bartol Research Foundation, Franklin Institute (Delaware, USA) suggested that the region of devastation might be greater than that involved in the Tunguska event itself. Eye-witness accounts were n accord with a large meteoroid/small asteroid entry, with a body passing overhead accompanied by a terrific roar (presumably electrophonic effects), later concussions, and the sky being lit up like daylight. A local aircraft operator, Art Williams, reported seeing an area of forest more than twenty miles (32 kilometers) in extent which had been destroyed, and he later stated that the shattered jungle was elongated rather than circular, as occurred at Tunguska and would be expected from the air blast caused by an object entering away from the vertical (the most likely entry angle for all cosmic projectiles is 45 degrees). 1936 – 14 Mar. – Red Bank, New Jersey – Meteorite through shed roof 1936 – 2 Apr. -Yurtuk, USSR – Building struck 1936 – 19 Oct. – Newfoundland – Fisherman’s boat set on fire by meteorite 1938 – 31 Mar. – Kasamatsu, Japan – Meteorite pierces roof of ship 1938 – 16 Jun. – Pantar, Phillipines – Several buildings struck 1938 – 24 Jun. – Chicora, Pennsylvania – A cow struck and injured 1938 – 29 Sep. – Benld, Illinois – Garage and car struck by 4-lb stone 1941 – 10 Jul. -Black Moshannon Park, Pennsylvania – Person missed by 1 m 1942 – 6 Apr. -Pollen, Norway – Person missed by 1 m 1940s – Qatar – A crater, believed to have been created by the impact of a falling meteor, found near Dukhan. Sheikh Salman bin Jabor al-Thani, head of the astronomical department at Qatar Scientific Club, said yesterday the club believed that the meteor had hit Qatar in the 1940s. The club started a search for evidence three years ago because of stories of a “falling star” told by people of that era. The club took the help of Google Earth in the search. They succeeded in locating five craters, which were just visible on the surface. 1946 – 16 May -Santa Ana, Nuevo Leon – Meteorite destroys many houses, injures 28 1946 – 30 Nov. -Colford, Gloucestershire, UK – Telephones knocked out, boy knocked off bicycle 1947 – 12 Feb. -Sikhote Alin, Vladivostok – An iron meteorite that broke up only about 5 miles above the earth rained iron. It produced over 100 craters with the largest being around 85 feet in diameter. The strewnfield covered an area of about 1 mile by a half mile. There were no fires or similar destruction like that found at Tunguska. Shredded trees and broken branches mostly. A total of 23 tons of meteorites were recovered and it’s been estimated it’s total mass was around 70 tons when it broke up. 1949 – 21 Sep. – Beddgelert, Wales – Building struck 1949 – 20 Nov. -Kochi, Japan – Hot meteoritic stone enters house through window – Madhipura, India – Building struck 1950 – 20 Sept. -Murray, Kentucky – Several buildings struck 1950 – 10 Dec. – St. Louis, Missouri – Car struck 1953 – 03 Mar. -Pecklesheim, FRG – Person missed by several meters 1954 – 07 Jan. -Dieppe, France – Meteorite-building explosion, smashed windows 1954 – 28 Nov. -Sylacauga, Alabama – Mrs. Annie Hodges struck by 4-kg meteorite that crashed through roof, destroyed radio 1955 – 17 Jan. -Kirkland, Washington – Two irons break through amateur astronomer’s observatory dome; one sets a fire. 1955 – one of the few documented case of a person being hit by a meteorite occurred. (Source – need more details) 1956 – 29 Feb. -Centerville, S. Dakota – Building hit 1959 – 13 Oct. -Hamlet, Indiana – Building hit 1961 – 23 Feb. -Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia – Loading dock struck 1961 – 6 Sept. -Bells, Texas – Meteorite strikes rook of house 1962 – 26 Apr. -Kiel, FRG – Building hit 1963 – Massachusetts – meteorite fell (need more details on this one.) 1965 – 24 Dec. – Barwell, England – Two buildings struck and a car struck 1967 – 11 Jul. -Denver, Colorado – Building struck 1968 – 12 Apr. -Schenectady, New York – House hit 1969 – 25 Apr. -Bovedy, N. Ireland – Building hit 1969 – 7 Aug. -Andreevka, USSR – Building hit 1969 – 16 Sept. -Suchy Dul, Czechoslovakia – Building hit 1969 – 28 Sept. -Murchison, Australia – Building hit 1971 – 8 Apr. -Wethersfield, Connecticut – House struck by meteorite 1971 – 2 Aug. -Havero, Finland – Building hit 1972 – 10 August – Utah, U.S., Alberta, Canada – The Great Daylight 1972 Fireball (or US19720810) – an Earth grazer meteoroid passed within 57 km of the surface of the Earth at 20:29 UTC on August 10, 1972, or 1.01 Earth radii from the centre of the Earth. It entered the Earth’s atmosphere in daylight over Utah, United States (1430 local time) and passed northwards leaving the atmosphere over Alberta, Canada. It was seen by many people, recorded on film and by space borne sensors. Analysis of its appearance and trajectory showed it was a meteoroid about 2 to 10 metres in diameter in the Apollo asteroid class in an orbit that would make a subsequent close approach to Earth in August 1997. In 1994 Zdenek Ceplecha re-analysed the data and suggested the passage would have reduced the meteoroid’s mass to about a third or half of its original mass. The meteoroid’s 100 second passage through the atmosphere reduced its velocity by about 800 metres per second and the whole encounter significantly changed its orbital inclination from 15 degrees to 8 degrees. 1973 – 15 Mar. -San Juan Capistrano, California – Building hit 1973 – 27 Oct. -Canon City, Colorado – Building hit 1974 – 18 Aug. -Naragh, Iran – Building hit 1977 – 31 Jan. -Louisville, Kentucky – Three buildings and a car struck 1979 – 7 Jun. -Cilimus, Indonesia – Meteorite fell in garden 1979 – 22 Sept. – The Vela Incident (sometimes known as the South Atlantic Flash) – The flash was detected on 22 September 1979, at 00:53 GMT, by a US Vela satellite that was specifically developed to detect nuclear explosions. The satellite reported the characteristic double flash (a very fast and very bright flash, then a longer and less-bright one) of an atmospheric nuclear explosion of two to three kilotons, in the Indian Ocean between Bouvet Island and the Prince Edward Islands at 47° S 40° E. Hydrophones operated by the U.S. Navy detected a signal which was consistent with a small nuclear explosion on or slightly under the surface of the water near the Prince Edward Islands. The radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, also detected an anomalous traveling ionospheric disturbance at the same time. “There remains uncertainty about whether the South Atlantic flash in September 1979 recorded by optical sensors on the U.S. Vela satellite was a nuclear detonation and, if so, to whom it belonged.” 1981 – 13 Jun. -Salem, Oregon – Building hit 1982 – 8 Nov. -Wethersfield, Connecticut – Pierced roof of house 1984 – 15 Jun. – Nantong, PRC – Man missed by 7 m 1984 – 30 Jun. -Aomori, Japan – Building struck 1984 – 22 Aug. -Tomiya, Japan – Two buildings hit 1984 – 30 Sept. – Binnigup, Australia – Two sunbathers missed by 5 m 1984 – 5 Dec. -Cuneo, Italy – Strong explosion, building flash; windows broken; daytime fireball “bright as Sun” 1984 – 10 Dec. -Claxton, Georgia – Mailbox destroyed by meteorite 1985 – 6 Jan. -La Criolla, Argentina – Farmhouse roof pierced, door smashed; 9.5-kg stone misses woman by 2 m 1985 – 26 June – Hartford, Conn. – a 1,500-pound slab of ice, six feet long and eight inches thick flattened a picket fence. The ground shook with the impact. A 13-year-old boy and his friend were standing 10 feet away. 1986 – 29 Jul. -Kokubunji, Japan – Several buildings hit 1988 – 1 Mar. -Trebbin, GDR – Greenhouse struck by meteorite 1988 – 18 May -Torino, Italy – Building struck 1989 – 12 Jun. -Opotiki, New Zealand – Building hit 1989 – 15 Aug. -Sixiangkou, PRC – Building hit 1990 – 7 Apr. -Enschede, Netherlands – House hit by believed fragment of Midas 1990 – 2 Jul. -Masvingo, Zimbabwe – Person missed by 5 m 1991 – Tahara, Japan – Meteorite struck deck of car-transport ship; made crater 1991 – 31 Aug. -Noblesville, Indiana – Meteorite fall missed two boys by 3.5 m 1992 – 14 Aug. -Mbale, Uganda – Forty-eight stones fall; roofs damaged, boy struck on head 1992 – 9 Oct. -Peerskill, New York – Car trunk, floor pierced by meteorite 1994 – 18 Jan. – Cando, Spain – an explosion that occurred in the village of Cando, Spain, in the morning of January 18, 1994. There were no casualties in this incident, which has been described as being like a small Tunguska event. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute. A possible explosion site was established when a local resident called the University of Santiago de Compostela to report an unknown gouge in a hillside close to the village. Up to 200 m³ of terrain was missing and trees were found displaced 100 m down the hill. 1994 – 16 July – Fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy begin impacting Jupiter. 1994 – 20 Oct. -Coleman, Michigan – Meteorite penetrated roof of house (1997) 1995 – Neagari, Japan – Meteorite penetrated car trunk 1996 – 26 Nov. – Honduras – According to the Associated Press: “A meteorite slammed into a sparsely populated area of Honduras last month, terrifying residents and leaving a 165-foot-wide crater, scientists confirmed Sunday. Near San Luis, in the western province of Santa Barbara. 1997 – 11 Apr. -Chambrey, France – Meteorite penetrated roof of car; set fire 1998 – 13 Jun. -Portales, New Mexico – Meteorite penetrated barn roof 1998 – 12 Jul. -Kitchener, Ontario – Meteorite falls 1 m from golfer 2000 – January – Canada – a 150-tonne meteoroid lit the skies over Whitehorse, and exploded over a lake about 100 kilometres south of the city. The Tagish Lake meteor produced a treasure of information about a rare kind of meteorite. 2000 – January – Iberian peninsula – ice chunks weighing up to 6.6 pounds rained on Spain for 10 days causing extensive damage to cars and an industrial storage facility. At first, scientists thought the phenomenon was unique to Spain. During the past three years, however, they’ve accumulated strong evidence that megacryometeors are falling all around the globe. More than 50 falls have been confirmed, and researchers believe that’s a small fraction of the actual number, since others may hit unoccupied areas or melt before discovery. Most megacrymeteor falls occur in January, February and March. Megacryometeors show the telltale onionskin layering seen in hailstones. They also contain dust particles and air pockets found in hail. But they are formed in cloudless skies, a notion that defies research on hail formation. 2001 – 25 July to 23 Sept. – Kerala, India – red rain sporadically fell; staining clothes with an appearance similar to that of blood. Yellow, green, and black rain was also reported. The rains were the result of the atmospheric disintegration of a comet, according to a study conducted at the School of Pure and Applied Physics of the MG University by Dr Godfrey Louis and his student Santosh Kumar. The red rain cells were devoid of DNA which suggests their extra-terrestrial origin. The findings published in the international journal Astrophysics and Space Science state that the cometery fragment contained dense collection of red cells. 2002 – 6 June – asteroid/comet explosion over the Mediterranean. Estimated at five to 10 meters in diameter, it released a burst of energy comparable to the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. 2002 – 24 Sept. – near Bodaibo (Bodaybo), near Irkutsk, Siberia – 1:50 am – Eye-witness accounts of the event reported a large luminous object falling to Earth near Bodiabo in Siberia. Hunters in the region have also reported the existence of a crater surrounded by burnt forest suggesting that an impact event had occurred. The event was detected by near-by geophones as a moderate-earthquake. The event was also detected by a U.S. anti-missile defense military satellite. Some attempts were made to define the magnitude of the explosion. US military analysts calculated it was between 0.2 – 0.5 kilotons, while Russian physicist Andrey Olkhovatov estimates it at 4 – 5 kilotons. Information about the event appeared in the mass media and among scientists after only a week. Another report says it occurred on the 25th of September at 10:00 p.m. 2004 – June – Auckland, New Zealand – Meteor crashes through roof of home, damages sofa. The meteorite was a four billion-year-old 1.3 kg rock. “There was this huge bang and a cloud of dust and debris went through the front room. I thought a car had hit the house.” In the only account in New Zealand of a meteorite crashing into a house, the chunk of space rock punched a hole through the roof of the Archers’ home, bounced off their couch, ricocheted off the ceiling and back on to the couch before ending up on the floor. 2004 – 3 Sept. – a small asteroid exploded in the stratosphere above Antarctica depositing sufficient micron-sized dust particles to cause ‘local cooling, and much speculation as to the possible effects on the ozone layer. 2004 – 26 December – Southeast Asia – an undersea earthquake occurred at 00:58:53 UTC with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It has been said that the earthquake was caused by subduction and triggered a series of devastating tsunamis, however, a comet/asteroid strike cannot be ruled out. Along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, more than 225,000 people in eleven countries were killed. Coastal communities were inundated with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were hardest hit. See: Mega-tsunami hit southeast Asia 700 years ago and compare with the events of 1430 above. 2006 – 1 Feb. – Canada – In Calgary on February 1st, 20 people reported seeing a fireball, an exceptionally bright meteor, streak across the sky just before 7 a.m., lasting for several seconds before breaking up into fragments. It was estimated that remnants of the meteorite landed about 400 km south of Calgary somewhere in Montana about two minutes after it appeared as a ball of fire. 2006 – 1 Feb. – Bangladesh – A ‘meteor’ from outer space fell with a big bang on a field in Singpara village of sadar upazila yesterday afternoon creating panic and curiosity among people. No one was reported hurt. On information Superintendent of Police Khandker Golam Farooq rushed to the spot and asked his companions and villagers to dig the earth near the house of one Fazlur Rahman from where smoke was still emitting. To their amazement they found a lead-like black material three feet below the earth. Hot and weighing 2.5kg, the triangular material looked like a mortar shell, witnesses said. The meteor was kept in custody of the Thakurgaon Police Station. 2006 – 17, 20 Feb. – Scotland – The hunt is on for the crash sites of two meteors near Stirling Castle. Scientists have been spurred into action by reports of spectacular “balls of fire” falling in the area. If discovered, they would be the first meteorites confirmed to have hit north of the Border for almost 100 years. The incidents, reported by several witnesses, were on the evenings of Friday, February 17 and the following Monday, February 20. “Although meteorite falls are rare everywhere, Scotland seems to have escaped remarkably lightly. There have only been four meteorites recovered from Scotland, compared with more than 18 from England and Wales. Statistically, we are overdue another one.” 2006 – 12 April – Australia – A Perth astronomer says a spectacular light show in the sky 12/3 was a meteor. Sightings were made as far south as Albany and inland through the Wheat Belt. It lit up the countryside for hundreds of kilometres around the south-west of Western Australia.” Witnesses say the the sky lit up about 9:00pm AEDT, and the light was followed by a thundering sound that shook buildings. 2006 – 4 May – TEXAS – Astronomers said a large meteor shower crossed straight over El Paso just before 9:45 p.m. Thursday the 4th of May. One meteor was so large that it cast an orange glow against the mountain. “The animals were going wild, the horses were bucking and dogs were barking and howling and then, all of a sudden right above my house, there was a big bright light and then just ‘Bang!’ And it lit up the five acres that are around us, and then I covered my eyes like this because it was bright and when it got past I saw there was a tail and it just went ‘Shhhh’ toward the Hueco Mountains.” 2006 – 2 June – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Canada – a fireball was spotted estimated to be some 20 miles above the Earth’s surface. A sonic boom was heard in the Lake of the Woods area of Minnesota, so there may be some pieces of the meteor that survived the fall. 2006 – 25 June – Pennsylvania – Residents of the Tuscarawas Valley who heard a deafening boom about 12:40 a.m. Monday the 19th and stepped outside likely saw what one person described as “a marvelous fireball with red streaks in the sky.” It probably was a meteor falling through the atmosphere. Numerous callers reported a large red fireball. Several said their homes shook. New Philadelphia police said they received reports from several callers who witnessed the fireball or heard the boom. One woman described it as “a blue light that lit up the sky and went down.” Police in Dover said multiple callers reported they heard a loud bang and something rattled their windows. Air Traffic Command in Washington, D.C. confirmed that Cleveland’s control center was checking into a meteor shower that occurred within its air space. 2006 – 10 July – South Africa – An ice ball that landed in Douglasdale, South Africa, might be one of the first ‘megacryometeors’ recorded in Africa. The ice ball, which landed on the pavement in suburban Douglasdale last week, was about the size of a microwave oven. The impact of the ice ball’s fall created a small crater on the pavement, which was covered with pieces of broken ice. Despite sharing many chemical characteristics with hail, ice balls are formed under clear-sky conditions. Ice balls have been recorded since the 19th century. They have the potential to damage people, buildings and cars, but no injuries were reported as a result of this one. 2006 – 14 July – Norway – At 10:20am a bus driver from Ås, south of Oslo, was sitting in the outhouse at his holiday cabin near Rygge on the 14th of July when he heard an enormous blast. Right after that, some particles from a meteor that exploded over the Oslo area rained down just outside. He said he didn’t think too much about the surprising blast at first, dismissing it as probably coming from an exercise at a nearby military air station at Rygge. But he said the blast and the rumbling it caused was terrible. He was just hooking the door when he heard a new noise, a whistling sort of sound, followed by a new bang on some aluminum plates lying near the outhouse. Sure enough, it was particles from a meteor that exploded somewhere over the Oslo Fjord area on Friday morning. Astronomers confirm Martinsen’s remarkable discovery of meteorite particles on his property. “This is Norway’s 14th meteorite, but we’ve never heard about a meteorite landing so close to a person before.” — A family from Moss, south of Oslo, came home from their summer holidays to find a meteorite in their garden. It’s another remnant of the meteor that exploded over the Oslo Fjord area on the 14th of JUly. Astronomers in Norway are calling the discovery of meteorites around southeast Norway “incredible,” and urge local residents to keep looking for more. “Two branches on our plum tree were broken. I lifted them up and there lay this stone.” It had made a hole measuring about seven centimeters in his lawn. 2006 – 12 Sept. – New Zealand – A small piece of rock that has been found in a paddock in New Zealand may be a piece of the meteorite that streaked across the sky there Tuesday the 12th, panicking residents who flooded emergency hotlines. A farmer found a 10cm by 5cm piece of “almost weightless” rock in his field today near the town of Dunsandel, south of Christchurch. It has been sent to New Zealand’s National Radiation Laboratory for analysis. The meteorite tore across the sky over the northern half of the South Island in the afternoon, leaving a bright, burning trial behind it and causing a sonic boom that rattled houses and shook the ground. It then apparently erupted into a fireball, sending forth a thick puff of smoke. People were sent running from the homes and offices when they heard the boom, fearing buildings could collapse. The sonic boom was registered on earthquake-detecting equipment. The boom meant the meteorite was probably travelling “very low”. It was probably about the size of a basketball as it shredded through the sky and became a “terminal fireball” at a speed of about 40,000kph. “If this had happened at night, it would have lit up the whole countryside.” 2006 – 10 Oct. – A fire that destroyed a cottage near Bonn and injured a 77-year-old man was probably caused by a meteor and witnesses saw an arc of blazing light in the sky, German police said on Friday. Burkhard Rick, a spokesman for the police in Siegburg east of Bonn, said the fire gutted the cottage and badly burnt the man’s hands and face in the incident on October 10. 2006 – 1 Dec. – NASA reports – Meteoroids are smashing into the Moon a lot more often than anyone expected. – That’s the tentative conclusion of Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, after his team observed two Leonids hitting the Moon on Nov. 17, 2006. “We’ve now seen 11 and possibly 12 lunar impacts since we started monitoring the Moon one year ago,” says Cooke. “That’s about four times more hits than our computer models predicted.” 2007 – January – Altai Region, Russia – Another expedition arrived to the Altai Republic to search for meteorite, which has fallen this January, and to talk with people, who witnessed this event. Expedition crew will visit Uglovsky and Egorievsky districts, where an unknown celestial body has fallen. – Later report: Russian social science and research expedition “Kosmopoisk” has sent four meteorite fragments found in Altai to Moscow laboratory. Research, carried out in field, showed that there exists high probability that two stones out of four are real meteorite fragments. The expedition found a meteorite crater 1.5 kilometer away from their camp, but nasty weather prevented them from detailed studying of said crater. 2007 – January – Tampa, Florida – a 200-pound chunk of ice streaked through the clear Florida sky and landed in the back seat of a really nice red Ford Mustang. The car was totaled. 2007 – 4 Jan – Authorities were trying to identify a mysterious metallic object that crashed through the roof of a house in eastern New Jersey. Nobody was injured when the golf-ball sized object, weighing nearly as much as a can of soup, struck the home and embedded itself in a wall Tuesday night. Approximately 20 to 50 rock-like objects fall every day over the entire planet, said Carlton Pryor, a professor of astronomy at Rutgers University. “It’s not all that uncommon to have rocks rain down from heaven,” said Pryor, who had not seen the object that struck the Monmouth County home. “These are usually rocky or a mixture of rock and metal.” 2007 – 10 January – Russia – a meteorite fell in January in the Altai Territory in southern Siberia and searchers found an extraterrestrial substance which could be meteorite fragments. “We have collected about 50 samples, and vitreous threads (traces of comet substance) were discovered in the first of them using a microscope.” Local motorists and residents witnessed the impact of a fiery ball, which eventually ended in a loud sound resembling an explosion. 2007 – 24 Jan. – Virginian, U.S. – Giles County residents were a little shaken after a tremor-like event, others say they heard a loud “thunder-like” sound. Virginia Tech researchers say they received several calls about a meteor sighting the same time of the tremors. The bizarre incident took place around 8pm. Researchers say the seismic station in Giles County did get a very short but intense seismic signal. 2007 – 31 Jan. – Turkey – Police were inundated with calls from scores of people from Didim to Bodrum after they heard a big bang and a flash of light across the skies. The flashing green, yellow and red lights were from a meteorite which crashed through the earth’s atmosphere and landed in Yesilkent. A startled man revealed that the rock had smashed a hole in the ground at the Green Park Complex, at Yesilkent, narrowly missing him by ten metres. Police reported that people from Bodrum, Milas and Didim had heard a bang and seen the flashing light across the skies at about 5:30pm. 2007 – 4 Feb. – Midwestern U.S. – Scores of people all over the Midwest and Upper Midwestern United States reported seeing flames and fiery explosions in the sky Sunday night. From southeastern Wisconsin to as far as Des Moines, Iowa and St. Louis, people reported seeing balls of fire, possibly meteors, streaking across the sky on Sunday night. “We had a pilot reporting seeing a meteor”. Reports came from residents in central Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 2007 – 15 Feb. – Ohio – Something happened at around 9 p.m. that a lot of people heard. But nobody seems to have any idea what it was. “It” was a loud bang, something loud enough to be heard all over the county, and loud enough to make small objects move in houses. Rumors range from an earthquake to a meteor strike, a sonic boom to something ice-related. While we may never know for sure, at least one scientist believes the meteor could be the answer. There’s no evidence to suggest an earthquake could have caused the bang, especially not over the range specified. One man said he saw a meteor with a relatively long trail, with red, green and gold coloration. It was headed east to west and lasted about three seconds; after it faded, the sonic boom washed over him. “I saw it first. It was the most eerie, cool, scary, wonderful thing. You just see this dragon tail going across the sky. All of a sudden, everything goes boom.” 2007 – 22 Feb. – Rajasthan, India – Three people were killed and four injured in a mysterious blast in a village in India’s northern Rajasthan state Thursday that villagers claim was caused by a meteorite, news reports said. Residents of Banchola village in Bundi district, about 200 kilometres south of Rajasthan capital Jaipur, said the victims were sitting with some iron scrap in an open field when an “object” fell from the sky and hit them, IANS news agency reported. 2007 – 23 Feb. – Panama – Panamanian geologists found a meteorite at Rio Hato, a coastal town west of the capital Panama City. The meteorite fell onto Rio Hato’s beach on Friday. The landing was witnessed by a security guard, who described it as a ball of fire crashing down from the sky onto the sand. The 4.2 kg red object, measuring 20 cm in diameter, was to be X-rayed for more details. The meteorite shows burn marks on its exterior, and appears to be mainly carbon-based, in contrast to most meteorites, which mainly contain iron. 2007 – 15 Mar. – What Richard Yip-Chuck saw fall into a farmer’s field Sunday evening looked like a long, white ball with orange sparks shooting off the back. The Holland Landing resident was driving along Hwy. 7 with his wife, Ele, and sons Kyle, 12, and 10-year-old Dylan, when they saw what looked like a fireball plummet to earth. 2007 – 29 Mar – Flaming debris of a possible meteor almost hit a plane – The pilots of a Chilean passenger jet reported seeing flaming debris fall past their aircraft as it approached the airport at Auckland, New Zealand. The captain “made visual contact with incandescent fragments several kilometres away”. The pilots reported the near-miss to air traffic controllers, reportedly saying the noise of the debris breaking the sound barrier could be heard above the roar of his aircraft’s engines. 2007 – 10 May – Spain – Fireball spotted across central Spain. Scientists think some fragments may have fallen to earth in the Ciudad Real area. A fireball fell across the centre of the country on Thursday night with sightings in Cuenca, Toledo, Ciudad Real and Valladolid. Scientists believe it was a meteorite and say it’s quite a normal phenomenon, possibly a fragment from a comet which fell from earth orbit. 2007 – 14 May – Hubbardton, Vermont – Recorded as a 2.1 temblor on the Richter scale, a quake hit at 4:10 a.m. One Hubbardton resident who said he was wide awake at 4 a.m. said he not only felt the earthquake, he saw what caused it. He said he saw something in the sky to the northeast of Lake Hortonia. He believes he saw a meteorite and that’s what triggered the earthquake. “It was like a streak of fire. I’ve heard meteorites hit before and that was what it sounded like. It was no earthquake, it was a meteor.” 2007 – 26 May – Woburn, Mass. – Meteorite punched a hole through a warehouse roof. 2007 – 7 June – Norway – A large meteorite struck in northern Norway this week, landing with an impact an astronomer compared to the atomic bomb used at Hiroshima. The meteorite appeared as a ball of fire just after 2 a.m. Wednesday, June 7th, visible across several hundred miles in the sunlit summer sky above the Arctic Circle. ‘I saw a brilliant flash of light in the sky, and this became a light with a tail of smoke. I heard the bang seven minutes later. It sounded like when you set off a solid charge of dynamite a kilometer (0.62 miles) away.’ The meteor struck a mountainside in Reisadalen. The country’s leading astronomer said he expects the meteor to prove to be the largest to hit Norway in modern times, even bigger than the 198-pound Alta meteorite of 1904. ‘If the meteorite was as large as it seems to have been, we can compare it to the Hiroshima bomb. Of course the meteorite is not radioactive, but in explosive force we may be able to compare it to the bomb.’ 2007 – 10 June – Sri Lanka – The strange objects that lit the night skies on June 10 have now been confirmed as meteors. “This is the first time that meteors of such magnitude have fallen in Sri Lanka. The shockwaves and vibrations have been heard throughout the country, from Galle to Puttalam. A Senior Consultant believes that two large meteoroids entered the atmosphere, the larger one splitting into two and the smaller one into about 25 fragments. The loud explosions were some of the particles exploding, probably about 50 to 100 km above the ground. In Kovinna, Andiambalama, at 9.05 p.m. on the 10th, a woman had noticed something unusual in the western sky. A bright light, almost as large as the full moon, appeared to be moving towards her in a wide arc. Alarmed by thoughts of terrorist air attacks, she called out to her neighbour. Together they watched fearfully as the glowing object drew closer, landed on the roof and vanished completely. A few minutes later the air vibrated with a loud explosion. The next day they discovered that parts of the asbestos sheets on the roof were charred and cracked. A few pieces of rock and sand were scattered around the damaged area. Similar incidents were reported around the country that night. Several people in areas such as Puttalam, Maho and Bingiriya also noted the appearance of the bright light in the sky as well as the loud explosion. In Kimbulapitiya a woman watched a flaming object land on a house and heard the booming sounds soon afterwards. In Campbell Place, Dehiwala, the roofs of two buildings were damaged, and a loud noise was heard. “24 asbestos sheets were broken.” 2007 – 6 July – Cali, Colombia, S. America – an incoming object broke apart in the lower atmosphere with a trio of ferocious explosions that shattered windows and shook the ground violently. Moments later, stones rained from the sky and pelted homes in the poor barrios surrounding the city. Some smashed through the roofs of homes. Recovered objects were chondritic (rocky) meteorite. 2007 – 26 July – Iowa – 5:30AM – A Dubuque woman said she is lucky to be alive after a 50 pound chunk of white ice crashed through the roof of her home, landing about 15 feet away from where she was standing. She said it sounded like a bomb exploded when the massive ball of ice hit her roof. Other large chunks of ice fell from the sky in this northeast Iowa city, tearing through nearby trees. Dubuque had clear skies at the time the ice fell. 2007 – 1 August – India – Hotipur (Sangrur) village near Khanauri hit the headlines when a meteorite fell in the fields on Wednesday night, leaving many villagers baffled. The police have taken possession of the 8-cm meteorite to hand it over to a three-member team of Geological Survey of India. Curious villagers queued up in the fields to see the “heavenly object”, while the farmer, who was the only witness to the fall of the “fireball”, said, “I got scared of the big fireball that was coming my way at 8:45 pm on Wednesday night. I ran for cover as I felt that it will fall on me.” (May be hoax.) 2007 – 11 Aug. – 12:09 am – Representatives with the Sonora Police Department and both the Tuolumne and Calaveras County Sheriff’s Departments say they fielded numerous calls early in the morning in regards to a “loud boom,” and “structures shaking.” There were several calls from residents who reported seeing “a blue light,” just before the “loud boom.” The incident reportedly occurred at 12:09am. The Police Department notes that it also received a call from a resident in Tuolumne, in which a female reported seeing what she thought was fireworks, and then something spiraling over her house. Early indication from the law enforcement agencies is that the loud boom was somehow the result of a meteor shower. 2007 – 15 Sept. – Peruvian Highlands – The meteorite’s impact sent debris flying up to 820 feet (250 meters) away, with some material landing on the roof of the nearest home 390 feet (120 meters) from the crater. Nearby residents who visited the impact crater complained of headaches and nausea. 2007 – 3 Oct. – Minnesota – Shortly after 2 p.m., people across the Twin Cities reported seeing a “metallic” object or “flaming ball” falling from the sky. Broadcasters and emergency dispatchers got hundreds of calls from people who saw the object traveling from the northeast to the southwest. Residents of Lyon County in far southwestern Minnesota reported a loud boom that might have been connected with the sightings in the Twin Cities. A man who lives near the town of Amiret says it shook his house and sounded like a sonic boom from an F-14 breaking the sound barrier at close range. Coincidentally, at the same time, drivers in the Twin Cities metro were dodging debris in the middle of Interstate 94. Some drivers said the debris fell from the sky shortly after 2:00 p.m. Wednesday. 2008 – 31 January – Didim, Turkey – POLICE were inundated with calls from scores of people from Didim to Bodrum after they heard a big bang and a flash of light across the skies. A startled Abdullah Arıtürk revealed that the rock had smashed a hole in the ground at the Green Park Complex, at Yeşilkent, narrowly missing him by ten metres. 2008 – 19 Feb. – U.S. Northwest – An apparent meteor streaked through the sky over the Pacific Northwest early Tuesday, drawing reports of bright lights and sonic booms in parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Although a witness reported seeing the object strike the Earth in a remote part of Adams County, in southeast Washington, it still has not been found. People in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia reported seeing the bright fireball streaking across the sky about 5:30 a.m. At least one person said the object exploded on impact in eastern Washington and another report from southeastern Washington said someone felt tremors from the blast. 2008 – 5 Mar. – Ontario, Canada – The Physics and Astronomy Department at Western has a network of all-sky cameras in Southern Ontario that scan the sky monitoring for meteors. Associate Professor Peter Brown, who specializes in the study of meteors and meteorites, says that Wednesday evening (March 5) at 10:59 p.m. EST these cameras captured video of a large fireball and the department has also received a number of calls and emails from people who actually saw the light. 2008 – 8 Mar. – Turkey – A resident of Yaka said he heard a loud roaring noise at around 11:20 a.m. on the day the meteorite fell, sounding as if “a plane had crashed.” “We were amazed to find such a small stone after that thunderous sound. It was black and about 40 centimeters in diameter, weighing three kilograms at most,” another said, adding that the meteorite opened a small crater in the ground and created a cloud of dust. 2008 – 10 Mar. – Sudbury, Canada – great balls of fire were seen falling from the sky – While most sightings were reported around 1:30 p.m. near Sudbury, Hagar, Highway 69 North and North Bay, Wayne Lachance spotted something in the sky earlier in the morning. Lachance was driving home to Massey after a night shift at Vale Inco Ltd. when something caught his eye around 7:30 a.m. “I thought it was a real bright star,” he said. “It was getting brighter and coming down with sparks.” Lachance arrived home and looked outside his bedroom window to see “spirals of smoke” falling. 2008 – 13 Mar. – Moon – Meteorite videotaped hitting the Moon. 2008 – 6 April – Argentina – 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 5.4 earthquake rocks Illinois; felt 350 miles away 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. “You could hear a roaring sound and the whole motel shook, waking up the guests,” Vibha Ambelal, manager of the Super 8 Motel in Mount Carmel, Illinois, near the epicenter, said in a telephone interview.” UPDATE! 4.5 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Illinois Continuing Series A 4.5-magnitude tremor struck southern Illinois on Monday continuing the series of aftershocks initiated by the 5.2 earthquake which hit the region Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) informed. This was the 18th earthquake in that series and its epicenter was approximately six miles below ground and about 37 miles (60 km) north-northwest of Evansville, Indiana, or about 131 miles (211 km) east of St. Louis, the USGS revealed. The 18 aftershock earthquakes which followed Friday’s tremor haven’t measured more than 3.9 on the Richter scale, but the first one was the biggest to hit shake the region called the Illinois basin-Ozark dome in over 40 years. 2008 16 April – Argentina – The Asociación Entrerriana de Astronomía (AEA) [Entre Ríos Astronomy Society, Argentina] has announced that on Wednesday 16th April 2008, at approximately 19:30 hours, was observed a highly luminous object that had all the characteristics of a bolide. This object was sighted from Paraná, Oro Verde and San Benito. According to witnesses, the bolide was intensely bright, with colours fluctuating between green, yellow and red. It followed a roughly north-east trajectory towards the south-west, with an angle of 75 degrees. One observer has stated that the bolide exploded before disappearing. It is not possible to discount the idea that this meteor relates to a similar fall which occurred last week over central Entre Ríos province, and which was observed across a wide part of Argentina. The AEA has also received over the past few days many reports of sightings of very luminous objects in different parts from the country, e.g. from Mar del Plata, Tucumán, Zárate, Concordia, Ituzaingó (Prov. de Corrientes), etc. 2008 – 17 April – Argentina – (This may be the same as the previous report on 16 April) A fireball fell somewhere in or nearby Entre Rios, 260 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. Mariano Peter from the Entrerriana Astronomy Association said there were reports from 4 witnesses. One of them described, “a strong light that passed at a high speed through the sky and at a low altitude, going towards the south and then it fell in the distance.” Another witness said, “it was very bright and it changed color between green and red.” The first fireball was reported in Entre Rios on April 6th, 2008 (see above). A witness said: “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. The next day a fragment of the space rock was recovered. And now: Smoke chokes Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires, Argentina — Smoke blanketed the Argentine capital Friday as brush fires apparently set deliberately consumed thousands of acres in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos. The smoke, from about 300 fires, is blamed for at least two fatal traffic accidents this week that left eight people dead. Sections of major highways and the Buenos Aires port, among the busiest in the world, have been closed. Incoming flights to the city’s domestic airport, Jorge Newbery Airpark, have been diverted. The Argentine government has blamed farmers looking to clear their land for crops and grazing for the fires, which are estimated to cover 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares). “This is the largest fire of this kind that we’ve ever seen,” Argentine Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said Thursday. Randazzo called the situation a “disaster.” As of Friday morning, little progress had been made extinguishing the blazes. 2008 – 20 April – Russia – Another overhead explosion? Two killed, 300 left homeless in Russian Far East fires Two people have died and 325 people including 18 children have been left homeless by fires that ripped through the Amur Region in Russia’s Far East, local emergency services said. The fires began on Sunday evening and continued until Monday morning in seven districts of the region. Locals had set light to dry grass to free land for farming and other purposes, and the flames were spread by high winds, a police source told RIA Novosti. A total of 104 houses have been destroyed. One of those who died in the fires was a disabled man who was unable to leave his home. A total of 50 rescuers have been involved in the firefighting operation. People injured in the fires will receive 20,000 rubles ($900) in compensation, local authorities said. Over 11,000 hectares have been destroyed in an estimated 59 forest fires currently burning in Russia’s Far East, the Natural Resources Ministry said. Curious how this report is similar to what happened several days ago in Argentina. And again, farmers – they all decided to set fires on the same day – burning grass and high winds are blamed for the vast damage and considerable destruction. We wonder what kind of excuse authorities will invent when this kind of event will happen in a non agricultural area. As I said, this list is not exhaustive, though I am exhausted from transcribing and pulling the data together! In addition to updating this list from other sources over the next few days, I hope that readers will send in their finds and we can have the most complete list available anywhere, excluding, of course, the classified data that we won’t be getting from our governments. Meanwhile, of course, we begin to understand why Bill Gates – formerly a regular guy turned elitist – has invested in his Seed Bank. Ah, the joys of being at the top and the perils of being at the bottom of the pyramidal hierarchy on this planet!
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Zaboravite na globalno zatopljenje, na jedan korak smo od izumiranja! Često, neke od najvažnijih vijesti dolaze iz lokalnih novina, priče koje ne završe na vrhu hranidbenog lanca informativnih tokova, glavnih novina ili noćnih vijesti. To mogu biti vijesti koje na prvi pogled izgledaju kao da nemaju nacionalni ili internacionalni utjecaj. Drugi pogled, te dobro pamćenje, mogu otkriti da taj utjecaj može biti jako značajan. Neki dan nam je čitatelj poslao link članka kojeg je našao na drugoj web stranici alternativnih vijesti: Loše vijesti – mi smo prošli naš datum ‘za izumiranje’. Budući da smo objavili istu priču kad je prvi put izašla, pomislili smo “Da! Sjećamo se!” Uostalom, sa svom pričom o globalnom zatopljenju, poslužila je kao podsjetnik čitateljima da ljudski uzrokovane razine CO2 nisu sve ono što se danas događa ovdje na Velikoj plavoj kugli. Kasnije navečer, razgovarali smo ovdje u SOTT sjedištu o ovom članku i kako je povezan s knjigom koja se trenutno prenosi iz ruke u ruku ovdje u našoj kući: Ciklus kozmičkih katastrofa: poplave, vatra i glad u povijesti civilizacije koju su napisali Richard Firestone, Allen West i Simon Warwick-Smith. Ta knjiga je o “Događaju” koji se dogodio otprilike prije 12 000 godina, a koji je različito zabilježen u mitovima i legendama kao Pad Atlantide i Noina poplava. Platon opisuje uništenje koje se dogodilo u jedan dan i noć, a Biblija pripovijeda priču o obilnim pljuskovima i ogromnoj poplavi u kojoj je većina života na zemlji iščezla. Postoji također bogata literatura američkih domorodaca o kataklizmi požara diljem svijeta, praćenoj poplavama i smrti koja je padala s neba. Oko pedeset različitih kultura svijeta je zabilježilo verzije ove priče, a fizičar Firestone i njegovi suradnici geolozi su zajedno složili knjigu, baziranu na čvrstim znanstvenim dokazima, opisujući kozmički lanac događaja za koji vjeruju da je dosegnuo vrhunac globalnom katastrofom prije 12 000 godina. Vjeruju da je Događaj pokrenula obližnja supernova koja se dogodila prije 41 000 godina. Redoviti čitatelji SOTT.net-a su upoznati s mojom Cassiopaea web stranicom i eksperimentom u superluminalnoj komunikaciji koji sam započela 1992. godine, a koji je napokon urodio plodom 1994. godine na dan kada su fragmenti kometa Shoemaker-Levy počeli udarati u planet Jupiter. Zanimljivo nam je kako je istovremeno jedna od tema Kasiopejskih informacija planetarno uništenje skupinom kometa koji ciklički prolaze kroz solarni sustav svakih 3600 godina kao posljedica orbite našeg Sunčevog solarnog Pratioca, manjeg, tamnog, Sunčevog blizanca. Firestone, West i Warwick-Smith također pričaju o bombardiranju planeta Zemlje doslovno tisućama asteroida, kometa i drugih krhotina, iako oni to pripisuju supernovi 28 ili 29 tisuća godina ranije; toliko dugo je trebalo onome što je izbacila supernova – zajedno s krhotinama koje je izbacila iz Oortova oblaka – da stigne do Zemlje. S idejom da postoji Ciklus kometarnog bombardiranja, mi smo naravno obratili pozornost na činjenicu da je u zadnjih nekoliko godina porastao broj dokaza da je ova teorija vrlo vjerojatno i točna. Dokazi uključuju fantastičan porast u broju “mjeseca” pričvršćenih za Jupiter koji su nedavno “otkriveni”, kao i porast u učestalosti kometa u zadnjih nekoliko godina, zajedno sa zapanjujućim porastom meteora i vatrenih kugli koje ulaze u Zemljinu atmosferu i padaju na Zemlju. U nekim slučajevima, ovi događaji su rezultirali u nanošenju štete ljudskim bićima i njihovoj imovini, a jedan noviji slučaj je čak rezultirao smrtnim slučajevima kao što ćemo vidjeti u nastavku… Uglavnom, da se vratimo našem razgovoru o čovječanstvu koje je prošlo datum “izumiranja”, razmišljala sam da svatko s otvorenim očima i ušima i malo znanstvenog znanja može pogledati uokolo i vidjeti da se nešto događa “tamo vani”. U vijestima je svaki dan, samo trebate potražiti (ili čitati SOTT.net: mi tražimo za vas). Problem je, naravno, da su mase čovječanstva tako ometane svim brigama svakodnevnog života – mnoge koje su jako ozbiljne ovih dana, posebice prijetnja nuklearnim ratom koju su nam donijeli George W. Bush i Ciokoni – da mnogi od njih nemaju pojma da se vjerojatno ne trebaju brinuti o globalnom zatopljenju. (I samo zato što ja kažem da se ljudi ne trebaju brinuti o globalnom zatopljenju ne znači da se ne trebaju brinuti!) Dokazi koji su svuda oko nas danas, čak nam pomažu da shvatimo da nije bilo ničeg zaista magičnog ili misterioznog oko Noine priče. Biblija nam kaže da je Bog rekao Noi da se nešto događa, da nešto dolazi, te da bi on trebao izgraditi arku i to će omogućiti njemu, njegovoj obitelji i nekolicini životinja da prežive. Ali očito, ovih dana i u ovom vremenu, nama zaista ne treba Bog da nam kaže da nešto opako ide prema nama. Noi vjerojatno isto nije trebalo. Zatim mi je, naravno, bilo istaknuto to da su mi Cs (skraćeno od Cassiopaeans – Kasiopejci, op. prev.) rekli o ciklusu kometarnih katastrofa. Razmislila sam o tome na trenutak i rekla, “pa, djelomično”. Ja jesam pisala o svemu tome u mojoj knjizi The Noah Syndrome 1985. godine, mnogo prije nego što su se Cs odgovarajuće predstavili. (Ova knjiga nije bila objavljena do trenutka pisanja ovog članka, ali veliki dio nje je uklopljen u knjigu Secret History.) Naravno, u to vrijeme sam započela s potpuno metafizičkim pitanjem: “Hoće li biti kraj svijeta kakav je opisan u Bibliji, te ako je tako, što to zapravo znači?” To je bilo pitanje koje je vodilo do dubokog proučavanja Biblije, koje je zatim dovelo do spoznaje da je uništenje koje je opisano u knjizi Otkrivenja skoro identično onome što je opisano u priči Izlaska, te što god se dogodilo tada, bilo je predviđeno da će se dogoditi ponovno. Tek kad sam pročitala knjigu Velikovskog – Worlds in Collision, shvatila sam da se tu vrlo vjerojatno radilo o bombardiranju Zemlje kamenjem i meteorima iz svemira. Velikovsky je, naravno, to pripisao lutajućem planetu Veneri koji je uletio u solarni sustav, kao što je i Firestone (i drugi) to pripisao supernovi koja se dogodila prije 41 000 godina. Objašnjenje o cikličnoj skupini kometa povezanoj sa Sunčevim pratiocem se bolje uklapa u sve te podatke, iako bi i supernova također mogla biti uključena kao “pridošlica” Sunčevom sustavu. Čitanje Velikovskog promijenilo je okus mog istraživanja iz metafizičkog u znanstveno, a rezultat je bio The Noah Syndrome. U svakom slučaju, ono što je savršeno jasno je da su priče o Noi i Atlantidi neautentične: mnoge male grupe ljudi diljem svijeta su tu i tamo preživjele događaj od prije 12 000 godina, a vrlo vjerojatno je mnogo od njih preživjelo zato što su shvatili što dolazi – oni su “pročitali znakove”. Nakon toga, u svojim pričama i legendama njihovi potomci su pripisali njihovo preživljavanje intervenciji svojeg specifičnog božanstva kako bi dali tom božanstvu više autoriteta. Radi se o tome da – danas svi mogu biti Noa ako su informirani i ako obraćaju dovoljno pažnje na ono što se događa. Vratimo se na članak koji je započeo ovu raspravu: Loše vijesti – mi smo prošli naš datum ‘izumiranja’, u kojem nam je rečeno: Neki kažu da će svršetak svijeta biti u vatri, neki kažu u ledu, napisao je Robert Frost. Ali kakva god da će biti naša sudbina, već se trebalo dogoditi. Nakon što su analizirali istrebljenje milijuna drevnih vrsta, znanstvenici su saznali da se masovno izumiranje može dogoditi svakog trenutka. Njihovo istraživanje je pokazalo da su svakih 62 milijuna godina – plus ili minus 3 milijuna godina – bića izbrisana s površine našeg planeta u ogromnim brojevima. Još gore, znanstvenici nemaju pojma o izvoru tog događaja. ‘Nema sumnje u postojanje ovog ciklusa masovnog izumiranja svakih 62 milijuna godina. To je vrlo, vrlo očito iz analize fosilnih zapisa,’ rekao je James Kirchner, profesor sa Sveučilišta u Kaliforniji, Berkeley, SAD. ‘Nažalost, svi smo potpuno zbunjeni oko uzroka.’ Ovaj dio članka je zapravo prilično neiskren. Dobro je poznato da postoje druga velika izumiranja i da ciklus nije SAMO svakih 62 milijuna godina! Postoji također vrlo jak signal za ciklus izumiranja od 25 milijuna godina. Drugačije procjene broja velikih masovnih izumiranja u zadnjih 540 milijuna godina su većinom zbog onoga što pojedini istraživač odabere kao prag za nazivanje događaja izumiranja kao “veliko”, kao i koji skup podataka on odabere kao odlučujuću mjeru o raznovrsnosti prošlosti. Podaci o događaju prije 62 milijuna godina dolaze uglavnom preko dokaza iz morskih fosila. Izvještaj koji je objavljen u trenutnom izdanju časopisa Nature su iznijeli profesor Richard Muller i Robert Rohde, također s Berkeley kampusa. Proučavali su nestanke tisuća različitih morskih vrsta (čiji su fosili bolje očuvani nego oni zemaljskih vrsta) kroz zadnjih 500 milijuna godina. Njihovi rezultati su bili potpuno neočekivani. Zna se da su se masovna izumiranja događala u prošlosti. Tijekom permskog izumiranja, prije 250 milijuna godina, više od 70 posto svih vrsta je izbrisano, na primjer. Ali većina istraživanja je sugerirala da su ta izumiranja povezana s asteroidnim sudarima i drugim nasumičnim događajima. Ali Muller i Rohde su saznali da se, daleko od toga da je nepredvidivo, masovna izumiranja događaju svakih 62 milijuna godina, uzorak koji je ‘upečatljiv i uvjerljiv’ po riječima Kirchnera. Ali što je odgovorno? Ovdje su istraživači naišli na probleme. Razmotrili su prolazak Sunčevog sustava kroz oblake plina koji prožimaju galaksiju. Ovi oblaci bi mogli pokrenuti klimatski kaos. Međutim, ne postoji poznati mehanizam koji bi objasnio zašto bi se prolazak mogao događati samo svakih 62 milijuna godina. Alternativno, Sunce možda posjeduje neotkrivenu zvijezdu pratioca. Mogla bi se približiti Suncu svakih 62 milijuna godina, istjerujući komete iz vanjskog Sunčevog sustava i bacajući ih prema Zemlji. Takva zvijezda pratioc nikad nije viđena, međutim, u svakom slučaju bi takva dugačka orbita bila nestabilna, Muller kaže. Ili možda neki unutarnji geofizički ciklus pokreće masivnu vulkansku aktivnost svakih 62 milijuna godina, pitali su se Muller i Rohde. Oblaci pepela i plina bi tada okružili planet i doveli do razarajućeg pada temperature koja bi smrtno smrznula većinu bića. Nažalost, znanstvenici ne znaju za takav geološki ciklus. ‘Pokušali smo sve čega smo se mogli sjetiti kako bi našli objašnjenje za ove čudne cikluse bioraznovrsnosti i izumiranja’, rekao je Muller. ‘Za sada smo neuspješni. I, da, jedan nam slijedi uskoro, ali ja još ne bih paničario.’ Pa, oni imaju problem, zar ne? Oni misle da dolazi, te bazirano na drevnim legendama, to se dogodi jako brzo i skoro bez upozorenja. Klasičnih “Velikih pet” masovnih izumiranja koje su identificirali Raup i Sepkoski 1982. godine (zanimljivo, u skoro isto vrijeme kada sam počela postavljati pitanja o kraju svijeta kao što je prorokovano u Otkrivenju i što je doseglo vrhunac u The Noah Syndrome 1985. godine!) su široko prihvaćeni kao neki od najvažnijih. Oni su: Kasni period Ordovicija (prije oko 438 milijuna godina) – 100 obitelji izumrlo – više od polovice vrsta mahovnjaka i ramenonošaca je izumrlo. 78 milijuna godina kasnije: Kasni Devon (prije oko 360 milijuna godina) – 30% životinjskih porodica izumrlo. 106 milijuna godina kasnije: Na kraju razdoblja Perm (prije oko 245 milijuna godina) – Trilobiti su izumrli. 50% svih životinjskih porodica, 95% svih morskih vrsta, te mnoga stabla, su izumrli. 37 milijuna godina kasnije: Kasni Trijas (prije oko 208 milijuna godina) – 35% svih životinjskih porodica izumrlo. Većina ranih porodica dinosaura je izumrla kao i većina sinapsida (osim sisavaca). 143 milijuna godina kasnije: Na granici Kreda-Tercijar (K-T) (prije oko 65 milijuna godina) – oko polovice svih životnih oblika je izumrlo, uključujući dinosaure, pterosaure, pleiosaure, mosasaure, amonite, mnoge porodice riba, školjki, puževa, spužvi, ježinaca, te mnogih drugih. Kao što može vidjeti iznad, koristiti se brojem “62 milijuna godina” i izgraditi teorije na tom broju je malo obmanjujuće. Raup i Sepkoski su spomenuti kao odgovorni za identificiranje “Velikih pet”, ali činjenica je da je Sepkoski, paleontolog Sveučilišta u Chicagu, SAD, zapravo predložio da je izumiranje dinosaura prije 65 milijuna godina bio dio ciklusa od 26 milijuna godina!! Međutim, željela bih spomenuti da ako pomnožite broj 26 dobijete zanimljive rezultate kao što su: 3×26 je 78 – što je baš vrijeme između ordovicijskog i devonskog izumiranja; 4×26 je 104 – što je vrlo blizu 106 milijuna godina između devonskog i permijskog izumiranja, te 5×26 je 130, što (kad radite s ovakvim brojevima) je dovoljno blizu praznini između trijasa i K-T izumiranja da ima značaj. Stoga, možda ipak ima nešto u ovom ciklusu od 26 milijuna godina, samo što svako “vraćanje” ima promjenjive efekte bazirane na mnogim drugim varijablama Sunčevog sustava. Zvijezda pratioc s orbitom od 26 milijuna godina bi mogla biti stabilnija, budući da je Muller predložio da je orbita od 62 milijuna godina prevelika da bude stabilna. Ako pretpostavimo orbitu od 26 milijuna godina za zvijezdu pratioca, koristeći se s pet velikih izumiranja kao polazištem, saznali bismo da je povratak trebao biti prije oko 39 milijuna godina, te još jednom prije 13 milijuna godina, što bi nas trenutno stavilo na pola puta u ciklusu orbite zvijezde pratioca. Pitanje: je li tih pola puta afel ili perihel? Gdje god da je teoretizirani Sunčev blizanac u ovom trenutku, ono što znamo je da postoje drugi događaji izumiranja velike magnitude koji se čine da imaju malo toga sa samim ciklusom od 62 milijuna godina, a puno više s nekim drugim ciklusom. Još jedna činjenična stvar je da se događaji izumiranja događaju puno češće nego što je javnost svjesna – i da, već smo prošli datum kada se trebalo dogoditi. Ostavimo moguće pokretače masovnih izumiranja na trenutak, te pogledajmo kako se neka izumiranja mogu dogoditi. Slijedi korisni sažetak problema: Načini na koje je moguće uništiti život Od svih načina koje su znanstvenici predložili kao uzrok masovnog izumiranja, evo nekoliko glavnih. Konceptualno postoje 4 glavna načina: - Zalediti ga (Zemlja-snježna kugla) - Skuhati ga (Zemlja-staklenik) - Baciti meteor na njega (udar meteora) - Pokriti ga pepelom i lavom (divovska vulkanska erupcija) Važno je shvatiti da su brojevi 3. i 4. esencijalno načini koji su postavljeni kako bi objasnili brojeve 1 i 2, iako su Zemlja-snježna kugla i Zemlja-staklenik još uvijek teorije, jer su one donekle samo-replicirajuće, tj. zaglavimo u groznim krugovima, jer što više zagrijavamo Zemlju, više stakleničkih plinova možemo potencijalno ispustiti, (barem u teoriji). To je sve u redu i dobro, ali kako ovi fizički utjecaji [1. i 2.] uzrokuju masovna izumiranja? Jednostavan odgovor na to je klima. Svaka vrsta koja živi na Zemlji danas, a vjerojatno i u prošlosti, prilagođena je određenom rasponu uvjeta. Da smo iznenadno prebačeni na Sjeverni pol i da se od nas očekuje da živimo tamo godinu dana s vunenim džemperom i Mars čokoladicom, zasigurno bi umrli. Isto je kod događaja izumiranja, klimatske zone se esencijalno mijenjaju diljem Zemlje (tako da naše premještanje na Sjeverni pol i nije tako nategnuto kao što ste prvo pomislili), te su ekosustavi lišeni svjetla i hranjivih tvari. To rezultira time da su biljke i životinje izvan ravnoteže sa svojom okolinom, a to ne samo da uzrokuje smrt pojedinaca nego čitavih vrsta. Sa smrću vrsta dolazi praznina u hranidbenom lancu, tako da i životinje koje su se prilagodile novoj klimi ostanu bez hrane, te izumiru, i tako dalje. PROBLEMI IZUMIRANJA U STRANOM EKOSUSTAVU Ako razmotrimo primjer nas na Sjevernom polu, ali ovaj put s čitavom kutijom Mars čokoladica, pretpostavljajući da se nismo smrznuli na smrt prvog dana, polako bi postali bolje naviknuti na hladnoću, možda bi pronašli zaklon od hladnoće, u svakom slučaju čim bi naš plijen (Mars čokoladice) nestao, osim ako bi pronašli alternativni izvor hrane, umrli bi od gladi. Kako bi stvorili dinamičniji ekosustav, pretpostavimo da osiguramo izvor hrane za drugi organizam kao što je polarni medvjed, te ako umremo, što bi polarni medvjed jeo? Nažalost, moj se primjer ovdje raspada, jer nitko neće vjerovati da bi se bez našeg konzumiranja Mars čokoladica oni razmnožavali nekontrolirano. Međutim, u našem ekosustavu Mars čokoladica, nas i polarnih medvjeda, pretpostavimo da nađemo dodatnu odjeću i sklonište, tako da hladnoća više ne kontrolira broj nas samih, te da uspijemo pronaći recept i sastojke za Mars čokoladice (i da nas one nekom jako čudnom slučajnošću osiguraju svim esencijalnim hranjivim tvarima potrebnim za život), u ovom slučaju bi polarni medvjedi upravljali našim brojem budući da su oni naši direktni predatori. Da su polarni medvjedi izbrisani, onda broj nas samih više ne bi bio kontroliran, tako da bi naša populacija tijekom mnogo generacija rasla, sve dok se na kraju više ne bi mogli opskrbljivati Mars čokoladicama, ili smo možda čak i pojeli sve Mars čokoladice na svijetu. Ovo bi izazvalo veliki pad populacije, a možda i izumiranje ljudske rase (ili barem onih ovisnih o Mars čokoladicama). Ovaj dosta apstraktan primjer pomaže objasniti poantu da sve prehrambene razine hranidbenog lanca (ili mreža) moraju biti na mjestu, inače će postojati nestabilnost u svim drugim populacijama. Gore navedeni opis o tome kako globalno zatopljenje ili zahlađenje može uzrokovati masovna izumiranja je pametan, ali ne uzima u obzir kreativnost ljudskih bića. Doista, može doći do masovnih smanjenja ljudske populacije kao posljedica globalnog zatopljenja ili zahlađenja, ali je malo vjerojatno da bi to izazvalo masovno izumiranje poput onih u prošlosti za koje imamo dokaz. Dopustite mi da citiram malo iz Secret History: Nazad u 1940-im godinama, Dr. Frank C. Hibben, profesor arheologije na Sveučilištu u New Mexicu, SAD, je vodio ekspediciju na Aljasku kako bi tražio ljudske ostatke. Nije našao ljudske ostatke; našao je milje i milje ledenog mulja nakrcanog samo s mamutima, mastodontima, te nekoliko vrsta bizona, konja, vukova, medvjeda i lavova. Odmah sjevernije od Fairbanksa, Aljaska, SAD, članovi ekspedicije su u užasu gledali dok su buldožeri gurali poluotopljeni mulj u provodne kutije za ekstrakciju zlata. Životinjske kljove i kosti skupljene ispred oštrica “kao strugotine ispred divovske tokarilice”. Leševi su pronađeni u svim stadijima smrti, većina njih “rastrgana nekim neobjašnjivim pretpovijesnim katastrofalnim poremećajem”. [Frank Hibben, The Lost Americans, New York: Thomas & Crowell Co., 1946.] Vidljivo nasilna smrt ovih masa životinja, zajedno sa smradom raspadajućeg mesa, je bila skoro nepodnošljiva za gledati, te razmatrati što je mogao biti uzrok. Polja smrti su se protezala doslovno stotinama milja u svim smjerovima. [ibid] Bilo je stabala i životinja, slojeva treseta i mahovine, uvrnutih, zapletenih i raskomadanih zajedno kao da ih je neki kozmički mix master sve usisao prije 12 000 godina, a zatim ih odmah zaledio u čvrstu masu. [Ivan T. Sanderson, Riddle of the Frozen Giants, Saturday Evening Post, br. 39, 16. siječanj 1960.] Odmah sjeverno od Sibira čitavi otoci su formirani od kostiju pleistocenskih životinja koje su pometene sjeverno od kontinenta u smrzavajući Arktički ocean. Jedna procjena predlaže da je nekih deset milijuna životinja možda zakopano uz rijeke sjevernog Sibira. Tisuće i tisuće kljova su stvorile masivnu trgovinu bjelokosti za stručne klesare Kine, sve od smrznutih mamuta i mastodonata Sibira. Poznati Berezovka mamut je prvi privukao pažnju na zaštitne karakteristike brzog zaleđivanja kad su našli cvijeće u njegovim ustima. Kakav grozni događaj je pogodio milijune ovih bića u jednom danu? Pa, dokazi sugeriraju na ogromni tsunami koji je poharao kopnom, prevrćući životinje i vegetaciju zajedno, kako bi se na kraju brzo zaledili na sljedećih 12 000 godina. Ali izumiranje nije bilo ograničeno na Arktik, iako je smrzavanje na hladnijim područjima očuvalo dokaze bijesa Prirode do sadašnjeg vremena. Paleontolog George G. Simpson smatra da je izumiranje pleistocenskog konja u Sjevernoj Americi jedno od najmisterioznijih epizoda u zoološkoj povijesti, te priznaje, “nitko ne zna odgovor”. Također je dovoljno iskren da prizna da postoji veći problem izumiranja mnogih drugih vrsta u Americi u isto vrijeme. [George G. Simpson, Horses, New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.] Konj, divovske kornjače koje su živjele na Karibima, divovski ljenjivac, sabljasti tigar, gliptodont i toksodont. Ovo su sve bile tropske životinje. Ove životinje nisu uginule zbog “postupnog nastupanja” ledenog doba, “osim ako netko želi pretpostaviti smrzavajuće temperature diljem ekvatora, takvo objašnjenje očito postavlja pitanje.” Martin & J. Guilday, Bestiary for Pleistocene Biologists, Pleistoceno izumiranje, Yale Sveučilište, 1967.] Masovne gomile kostiju mastodonata i sabljastih tigrova su otkrivene na Floridi, SAD. [Valentine, citirao Charles Berlitz, The Mystery of Atlantis, New York, 1969.] Mastodonti, toksodonti, veliki ljenivci i druge životinje su pronađene u Venezueli u brzo zamrznutom stanju u planinskim ledenjacima. Dlakavi nosorozi, divovski pasanci, divovski dabrovi, divovski jaguari, kopneni ljenivci, antilope i brojne druge čitave vrste su potpuno izbrisane u isto vrijeme, na kraju pleistocena, prije približno 12 000 godina. Događaj je bio globalan. Mamuti Sibira su izumrli u isto vrijeme kao i divovski nosorozi Europe; mastodonti Aljaske, bizoni Sibira, azijski slonovi i američke deve. Očito je da je uzrok ovih izumiranja morao biti zajednički objema hemisferama, te da nije bio postupan. “Uniformitarijanska glacijacija” ne bi uzrokovala izumiranja, jer bi razne životinje jednostavno migrirale na bolje pašnjake. Ono što se vidi je iznenađujući događaj nekontrolirane nasilnosti. Cedric Leonard, Dodatak A u A Geological Study of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Posebni članak br. 1, Bethany: Cowen Publishing, 1979.] Drugim riječima, prije 12 000 godina, vrijeme koje smo upoznali prije i koje ćemo susresti ponovo i ponovo, nešto se grozno dogodilo – tako grozno da je život na Zemlji skoro izbrisan u jednom danu. Harold P. Lippman priznaje da veličina fosila i kljova u sibirskom permafrostu predstavlja “nepremostivu teškoću” teoriji uniformitarijanizma, budući da nijedan postupni proces ne može rezultirati očuvanjem na desetke tisuća kljova i čitavih pojedinaca, “čak i da su umrli po zimi.” [Harold E. Lippman, Frozen Mammoths, Physical Geology, New York, SAD, 1969.] Ovo je istina posebno zbog toga što mnogi od ovih pojedinaca imaju neprobavljenu travu i lišće u svojim želucima. Pleistocenski geolog William R. Farrand s Lamont-Doherty geološkog opservatorija, koji se protivi katastrofizmu u bilo kojem obliku, kaže: “Iznenadna smrt je pokazana snažnim stanjem životinja i njihovim punim želucima … životinje su bile snažne i zdrave kada su uginule.” [William R. Farrand, Frozen Mammoths and Modern Geology, Science, vol. 133, br. 3455, 17. ožujka 1961.] Nažalost, unatoč ovom priznanju, izgleda da se ovaj jadni čovjek nije mogao suočiti sa stvarnošću svjetske katastrofe koju predstavljaju milijuni kostiju položenih po čitavom planetu točno na kraju pleistocena. Hibbens sažima situaciju u jednoj rečenici: “Period pleistocena je završio smrću. Ovo nije bilo obično izumiranje nejasnog geološkog perioda, koji je dočekao nesiguran kraj. Ova smrt je bila katastrofalna i sveobuhvatna.” [Hibben] Zaključak je, ponovno, da je završetak ledenog doba, pleistocensko izumiranje, kraj gornjeg paleolitika, magdalenijana, perigordijana i tako dalje, te kraj “vladavine bogova”- sve došlo do globalnog, katastrofalnog kraja otprilike prije 12 000 godina. [The Secret History of the World] Ovo je događaj o kojem Firestone, West i Warwick-Smith razgovaraju u svojoj knjizi, The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization, spomenutoj gore. Ali ako su gore navedena izvješća rezultat takve katastrofe, kakva bi sama katastrofa mogla biti? Ono što slijedi je sažeto i prilagođeno iz 11. poglavlja knjige autora Firestone, West i Warwick-Smith: Počinje s meteorima koji padaju kao kapi kiše, nekoliko ovdje, nekoliko ondje. Možda ih nekolicina pogodi Sunce, izazivajući solarne baklje. Solarne baklje izazivaju raznobojne aurore na nebu, čak i po danu. Onda dan kometa stigne. Od horizonta do horizonta, sve veći svake sekunde, uletjeli su u atmosferu, zasvijetlili blistavije od Sunca. Zagrijana do ogromnih temperatura svojim prolaskom kroz atmosferu, smrtonosna skupina meteora je eksplodirala u tisuće blokova veličine planina i u oblake strujajuće ledene prašine. Manji dijelovi su eksplodirali visoko u atmosferi, stvarajući višestruke detonacije koje su pretvorile nebo u narančasto i crveno. Tada je najveći komet razbio ploču leda koja je pokrivala dio sjeverne hemisfere u dijelu koji je danas poznat kao Hudson Bay, SAD. Drugi kometi su pogodili jezero Michigan, Kanadu, Sibir i Europu. Onda su nastupili udarni valovi na tlu, tresući zemlju nasilno deset minuta u velikim kotrljajućim valovima i podrhtavanjima. Otvorile su se pukotine, stabla su se tresla i padala, a rijeke i potoci su nestali u napukloj zemlji. U sekundama nakon udara, mlaz iznimno zagrijanog zraka se proširio prema van, brzinom većom od 1000 milja na sat, harajući krajolikom, čupajući stabla iz zemlje i bacajući ih u zrak, otkidajući kamenje s padina planina, te u trenutku pržeći biljke, životinje, zemlju i ljude koji su se našli na putu. Jedina bića koja su preživjela su bila ona koja su potražila sklonište pod zemljom ili vodom. Kroz gornji dio Sjeverne Amerike i Europe, ogromna energija od višestrukih udara je stvorila seriju stalno-širećih, divovskih, preklapajućih mjehura koji su odgurali atmosferu u stranu kako bi stvorili skoro bezračni prostor. Dok su mjehuri prolazili, tlak zraka se spustio tako da je postalo teško disati. Iza širećeg ruba mjehura, Zemlja je lišena obrambenog štita atmosfere. Eksplozija je izbacila malena, brza zrna u svim smjerovima kroz prorijeđeni zrak. Neka su se zabila u stabla, biljke i životinje, dok su druga otišla u vis samo da bi ponovno pala na zemlju nevjerojatnom brzinom jer nije bilo atmosfere koja bi usporila njihov pad. U istom trenutku, brze kozmičke zrake su bombardirale područje radijacijom. Životinje i ljudi su na mjestu pali mrtvi. Beživotni objekti su izgledali kao da su oživjeli dok su podrhtavali i tresli se na zemlji. Kad se udarni val prestao širiti, vakuum je počeo povlačiti zrak. Dok je proširena atmosfera jurila nazad prema mjestu udara, mjehuri su se raspali, usisavajući bijelo-vruće plinove i prašinu prema unutra brzinom tornada, a zatim ih usmjeravajući prema gore udaljavajući ih od Zemlje. Nešto prašine je pobjeglo iz Zemljine atmosfere, dok je ostatak tekao kao crveni oblak oblika gljive koji se u ravnini širio tisućama milja preko gornje atmosfere, blokirajući sunce i obuzevši Zemlju tamom. Prašina i ostaci koji su bili preteški su počeli padati na Zemlju. Još uvijek iznimno vrući od eksplozije, moćno su sjajili poput lave. Dijelovi su sletjeli na kontinentalni ledeni pokrivač, instantno otapajući neviđene količine vode koji su krenuli od ledenog pokrivača u svim smjerovima izazivajući poplave. Divljajući mlaz zraka koji se kretao prema gore kroz šuplje mjehure stvorio je jednako moćni ledeni mlaz zraka koji se kretao prema dolje, zrak visoke nadmorske visine, putujući stotinama milja na sat. S temperaturama koje su bile niže od -100°C, silazni mlaz zraka je pogodio Zemlju, šireći se prema van u svim smjerovima iz mnogih takvih udarnih područja, u sekundama zaleđujući sve što dotakne. Urlajuća, ledena eksplozija je pretvorila stabla i biljke u krhke ledene kipove, te zaledila mastodonte i mamute s hranom u njihovim ustima, a koje smo otkrili još zaleđene u Sibiru. Brze temperaturne fluktuacije su značile kraj za milijune biljaka i životinja…. ali uništenje je bilo samo početak. Udari i udarni valovi su izazvali ogromne potrese duž postojećih rasjeda od Karolina do Kalifornije, SAD, dok su s podrhtavanjima probudili neaktivne vulkane od Islanda pa sve do Tihog oceana. Eruptirajući žestokom aktivnošću, izbacivali su vruću lavu diljem krajolika, te štetne kemikalije u zrak, doprinoseći već gustom oblačnom pokrivaču. Udari, udarni valovi i erupcije su prouzročili tisuće požara gdje god je to bilo moguće, a nekolicina ih je nastavila goriti danima. Brzi, vjetrom poticani požari su oblikovali spiralne jezike divljih plamenova koji su se uvijali tisućama stopa u zrak, a vatrena stihija je jurila kroz šume brže nego što su ptice i životinje mogle pobjeći. Tutnjava vatre je tresla tlo, a bijesna vrućina je raznijela drveća poput bombi, rasprskavajući kamenje poput šrapnela granata, te je pokrenula eksplozije pare gdje god je brza vatra skakala preko zamrznutih jezeraca i potoka. Kad su vatre konačno prestale, malo toga je ostalo osim tinjajućih panjeva i razasutog drvenog ugljena diljem kontinenata. Štetne kemikalije u atmosferi su pale nazad na zemlju kao otrovna kiša. Zrak je u nekim područjima bio previše otrovan, te nije imao dovoljno kisika da podrži život. Udar u Hudson Bayu, SAD, je poslao u zrak 200 000 kubičnih milja ledenjaka, razbacivajući krhotine leda koje su pratile dijelove kometa, preko kontinenta. Kiša užarenih krhotina i komada isparavajućeg leda je pljuštala po tlu preko većine Sjeverne Amerike, Europe i Azije. Unutar minuta, masivni, nisko leteći grumeni su udarili u Karoline i istočnu morsku obalu, eksplodirajući u vatrene kugle i izdubivši Carolina Bays, SAD, njih preko 500 000. Drugi komadi su eksplodirali preko ravnica, od Nebraske i Kansasa do Arizone. Dijelovi letećeg leda i krhotina, mali i veliki, su pali od Atlantskog do Tihog oceana, od Meksičkog zaljeva do Arktika, od Europe do Azije, pa čak i dalje do Afrike. Više od jedne četvrtine planeta je bilo pod opsadom. Ali čak ni to nije bilo sve. Udar koji je probio ledenjak Hudson Baya, SAD, je poslao jako brzu otopljenu vodu u stanje velike uzburkanosti ispod ledenog pokrivača. Navale su podigle i pokrenule velike dijelove leda, uzrokujući klizanje monolitskih ledenih blokova prema jugu zajedno sa stotinama milja vanjskih dijelova ledenog pokrivača. Krećući se skoro istom brzinom kojom konj može trčati, blokovi su orali kroz šume, sječući drveće. Oceani su također bili mete. Tisuće ledenih komada i oblaka bljuzgave vode su pogodili Atlantik, eksplodirajući kolosalnim detonacijama. Višestruki potresi su pokrenuli ogromna podvodna klizišta zemlje pored Karolina i Virginije, otpuštajući tisuće kubičnih milja blata. Slijedom toga, blato je oslobodilo 1000 stopa (300 metara, op. prev.) visok plimni val koji je jurio prema Europi i Africi brzinom od 500 milja na sat. Devet sati kasnije val je pogodio [Europu], 1000 stopa visok i brzine 400 milja na sat, vjerojatno uzimajući sa sobom neke preživjele iz prvih eksplozija. Val se probijao stotinama milja unutar kopna, razarajući sve na svom putu. Sve što je živjelo na obali je trenutno ubijeno. Kad se zamah potrošio, uzburkana voda je pauzirala nakratko, a zatim je počela juriti nazad prema obali, povlačeći sa sobom izudarane ostatke biljaka i životinja. Navala je pri povratku izazvala priobalno odronjavanje zemlje u Europi i Africi, šaljući drugu rundu mega valova nazad prema Sjevernoj i Južnoj Americi. Milje obalnog područja su pogođene sa 100 stopa visokim valovima koji su pokrenuli još jedan val tsunamija pogodivši Europu i Afriku još jednom. Ali malo toga je ostalo za oštetiti. Minutama nakon udara, kombinacija zraka temperature ispod nule i rastuće vodene pare je proizvela teški snijeg i susnježicu koja je dosegla južno do Meksika, Kariba i sjeverne Afrike. Na jugu, snijeg se pretvorio u kišu i sjeverna hemisfera je bila pod nepomičnim pljuskom mjesecima, pljuskom zagađene i smrtonosno štetne vode. Oni sretnici koji su preživjeli, su sada bili potencijalne žrtve kiseline, otrovnih metala, cijanida, formaldehida i arsena, kombinacija koja bi mnoge ubila, a druge učinila teško bolesnima. Otopljena voda ledenjaka je imala još jedan učinak: preplavljivanjem u sjeverni Atlantik, prekinula je oceansku struju koja je donosila toplu vodu sjevernim klimama. Prekidanje struje, zajedno s oblacima prašine koji su blokirali Sunce, je uzrokovalo drastičan pad temperature. Unutar dana ili tjedana nakon udara, kontinentalne temperature su pale dosta niže od točke smrzavanja, a brutalna hladnoća ledenog doba se opet proširila preko Zemlje, ostajući na mjestu sljedećih tisuću godina. I sve to u jednom trenutku, u manje vremena nego što je potrebno za skuhati jelo ili napisati e-mail. Primijetit ćete, naravno, da je “prije 12 000 godina” samo gruba procjena zato što su neki datumi kod njihovih podataka određeni na 14 tisuća godina starosti, a neki na bližih 10 tisuća godina starosti. Kada razmatramo 3600-godišnji ciklus skupine kometa, ovaj raspon može pokrivati više od jednog događaja. Ali ono što je važno je da se glavni događaj jeste, očevidno, dogodio u jednom danu i, temeljeno na znanstvenim podacima koje su prikupili Firestone i drugi, to je bio jedan od najstrašnijih događaja koji se ikada dogodio na planetu Zemlji otkad su se moderni Homo sapiensi pojavili. Zašto stalno spominjem ciklus od 3600 godina? Pa, osim toga što je razjašnjen unutar konteksta Kasiopejskog eksperimenta, čini se da je ovaj 3600-godišnji period bio dovoljno važan određenim drevnim ljudima da je bio baza njihove matematike. Oko 3200 godina pr. Kr., Sumerani su izumili svoj numerički sustav označavanja, dajući specijalne grafičke simbole jedinicama 1, 10, 60, 600, 3600. To jest, nalazimo da Sumerani nisu računali u deseticama, stoticama i tisućicama, nego da su primijenili bazu 60, grupirajući stvari u šezdesetice, te množili sa šezdeset. Naša civilizacija koristi znakove baze 60 u načinima na koje računamo vrijeme u satima, minutama i sekundama, te u stupnjevima kruga. Šezdeset je velik broj da bi se koristio kao baza brojevnog sustava. Opterećuje pamćenje, jer je potrebno znati šezdeset različitih znakova (riječi) koji stoje za brojeve od 1 do 60. Sumerani su se nosili s time koristeći 10 kao posrednik između različitih redova veličina osnovanih na broju 60: 1, 60, 602, 603, itd. Riječ za 60, geš, je ista riječ kao za jedinstvo. Broj 60 je predstavljao određenu razinu, iznad koje su višekratnici broja 60, sve do 600, izraženi koristeći se sa 60 kao novom jedinicom. Kada su došli do 600, s novom razinom se postupalo kao s još jednom jedinicom, s višekratnicima do 3000. Broju 3600 ili šezdeset šezdesetica, dano je novo ime: šár, a ovo je, zauzvrat, postalo još jedna nova jedinica. Dakle, zagonetka je: zašto su Sumerani brižljivo čuvali broj 60 – i njegov višekratnik 60×60 – u svojem brojevnom sustavu? Zecariah Sitchin je vjerovao da je to zbog toga što je postojao deseti planet u našem solarnom sustavu koji je imao orbitu dugu 3600 godina, te da su oni bazirali svoj brojevni sustav na ciklusu tog događaja. Ali dokaz za deseti planet – kao planet – i njegove ideje vezane uz to, je jako oskudan, dok dokaz za bombardiranje Zemlje mnoštvom kometarnih krhotina raste svaki dan. Proučavajući konkretne podatke, ne treba biti genij da bi se shvatilo da ako postoji nešto što se vraća svakih 3600 godina, vjerojatnije je da je to skupina kozmičkih tijela nego deseti planet. A to su loše vijesti. KOMETI I KATASTROFA U BRONČANOM DOBU U određenom trenutku u našoj povijesti, velike civilizacije svijeta su se raspale, istovremeno, čini se. Akadsko carstvo u Mezopotamiji, Staro egipatsko kraljevstvo, civilizacija Ranog brončanog doba u Izraelu, Anatolija i Grčka, a također civilizacija doline Inda u Indiji, Hilmand civilizacija u Afganistanu i Hongshan kultura u Kini – prve urbane civilizacije u svijetu – sve su propale u više-manje isto vrijeme. Nedugo nakon toga, u arheološkom pogledu vremena, nesreća je pogodila Mikence u Grčkoj, Hetite u Anatoliji, egipatsko Novo kraljevstvo, Izrael Kasnog brončanog doba, te Shang dinastiju Kine. Razlozi za ove rasprostranjene i očevidno istovremene katastrofe – koje se podudaraju također s promjenama u kulturama i društvima drugdje, kao u Britaniji – su dugo bili fascinantna zagonetka. Tradicionalna objašnjenja uključuju ratovanje, nestašicu hrane, te u novije vrijeme ‘slom sustava’, ali očevidni nedostatak direktnog arheološkog ili pisanog dokaza za uzroke, nasuprot efektima, naveo je mnoge arheologe i povjesničare u rezigniranu pretpostavku da nije moguće naći definitivno objašnjenje. Prije nekoliko desetljeća, lov na tragove je prešao većinom u ruke prirodnih znanstvenika. Koncentrirajući se na raniji skup krahova Brončanog doba, istraživači su počeli nalaziti niz dokaza koji su ukazivali da su prirodni uzroci, prije nego ljudska djela, možda bili početno odgovorni. Počeo je razgovor o klimatskim promjenama, vulkanskim aktivnostima i potresima – a nešto od ovog materijala je sada našlo svoj put u standardne povijesne prikaze tog perioda. Dogovora, međutim, nikad nije bilo. Neki istraživači su više voljeli jedan tip prirodnih uzroka, dok su ostali voljeli drugi, te je ostao problem da nijedno pojedinačno objašnjenje nije moglo objasniti sve dokaze. Tijekom zadnjih 15-ak godina, međutim, o novom tipu ‘prirodne katastrofe’ se mnogo raspravljalo, te se on počinje smatrati, od strane mnogih učenjaka, kao najvjerojatnije pojedinačno objašnjenje za rasprostranjen i istovremen kulturalni krah, ali ne samo u Brončanom dobu, nego i u drugim vremenima također. Novu teoriju su unaprijedili većinom astronomi, te ostaje skoro potpuno nepoznata među arheolozima (nekoliko značajnih iznimki uključuje profesora Mike Bailliea, dendrokronologa sa Sveučilišta Queen’s u Belfastu, Irska, te dr. Euan MacKie sa Sveučilišta Glasgow, Škotska). Nova ideja je da su ove masovne kulturalne katastrofe bile izazvane udarima kometa ili drugih tipova kozmičkih krhotina na Zemlju. Ali što je bio uzrok ovih potresa, erupcija, plimnih valova, vatrenih eksplozija i klimatskih promjena? Kasnih 1970-ih godina, britanski astronomi Victor Clube i Bill Napier sa Sveučilišta Oxford, su počeli istraživati udare kometa kao glavni uzrok… Zatim su 1980. godine nobelovac Luis Alvarez i njegovi kolege objavili svoj poznati rad u časopisu Science gdje se argumentiralo da je kozmički udar doveo do istrebljenja dinosaura. On je pokazao da su velike količine elementa iridija koji je prisutan u geološkim slojevima, a datira iz oko 65 milijuna godina pr. Kr., imale kozmičko porijeklo. Alvarezov rad je imao ogroman utjecaj i potaknuo je daljnje istraživanje takvih britanskih astronoma kao što su Clube i Napier, prof. Marka Baileya s opservatorija Armagh, Duncana Steela sa Spaceguard Australia, te britanskog najpoznatijeg astronoma Sir Freda Hoylea. Svi oni sada podržavaju teoriju kometarnog udara i čine ono što je sada poznato kao Britanska škola dosljednog katastrofizma. Ovi učenjaci zamišljaju “vlakove” kometarnih ostataka koji uzastopno susreću Zemlju. Znamo da sitne čestice kozmičkog materijala prodiru kroz atmosferu svakog dana, ali njihov udar je beznačajan. Ali povremeno, kozmičke krhotine veličine između jednog i nekoliko stotina metara u promjeru pogode Zemlju, te one mogu imati katastrofalne učinke na naš ekološki sustav, kroz multi-megatonske eksplozije vatrenih kugli koje uništavaju prirodne i kulturalne značajke na površini Zemlje putem poplavljujućih plimnih valova (ako krhotine padnu u more), vatrenih eksplozija i seizmičke štete. Ovisno o njihovim fizičkim karakteristikama, asteroidi ili kometi koji probiju atmosferu mogu pogoditi Zemljinu površinu i ostaviti udarni krater, kao što je dobro poznati Barringer krater u Arizoni, SAD, kojeg je izazvao asteroid izgrađen od željeza prije nekih 50 000 godina. Barem deset udarnih kratera diljem svijeta datiraju iz razdoblja poslije zadnjeg ledenog doba, te ne manje od sedam od njih datiraju otprilike iz trećeg tisućljeća pr. – datum rasprostranjenih slomova Ranog brončanog doba – iako se nijedan nije dogodio na Bliskom istoku. Alternativno, kometi i asteroidi mogu eksplodirati u zraku. Nedavni primjer – poznat kao eksplozija u Tunguskoj, Rusija – dogodio se 1908. godine iznad Sibira, kad je meteor izgrađen od kamena eksplodirao oko 5 km iznad zemlje, te kroz eksplozije vatrene kugle potpuno uništio područje od nekih 2000 kvadratnih kilometara. Kozmičko tijelo, iako su mislili da je bilo samo 60 metara u promjeru, je imalo energiju udara oko 20 do 40 megatona, do tri puta više nego primjer u Arizoni (oko 15 megatona), te je bio istovjetan eksploziji od oko 2000 Hiroshima nuklearnih bombi – iako nije bilo stvarnog fizičkog udara na Zemlju. Do nedavno, astronomska glavna struja je bila jako kritična prema hipotezi o divovskom kometu Clubea i Napiera. Ali, pad kometa Shoemaker-Levy 9 na Jupiter 1994. godine, je doveo do promjene u stavovima. Komet, kojeg su gledale zvjezdarnice diljem svijeta, prelomio se u 20 dijelova i udario u različite dijelove planeta u periodu od nekoliko dana. Sličan udar na Zemlju, ne treba ni spominjati, bi bio razoran. Prema trenutnom znanju, udari tipa Tunguskea se događaju svakih 100 godina ili slično. Nije, dakle, suludo hipotezirati da se super Tunguska može dogoditi svakih 2000, 3000 ili 5000 godina, te da bi bila sposobna izazvati ekološke krize u kontinentalnim ili čak globalnim razmjerima. U prošlosti su skeptici zahtijevali dokaz kratera prije nego što bi prihvatili argument o kozmičkom udaru, ali sada je priznato da nije potreban krater za katastrofalne posljedice. Međutim, teškoća koja se nameće učenjacima je da kod događaja tipa Tunguske nije ostavljen direktan dokaz. Može biti nemoguće dokazati da se uopće i dogodio u daljoj prošlosti. Razmjer do kojeg su prošli kometarni udari bili odgovorni za slom civilizacija, kulturalne promjene, čak i razvoj religije, mora ostati hipoteza. Ali u vidu astronomskih, geoloških i arheoloških dokaza, ovu hipotezu ‘divovskog kometa’ arheolozi ne bi trebali više odbacivati na stranu. Benny J. Peiser: BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY, prosinac 1997., br. 30, str. Benny J. Peiser je povjesničar i antropolog sa Sveučilišta John Moores u Liverpoolu, Engleska. Zajedno s Markom Baileyem i Trevorom Palmerom uređuje Prirodne katastrofe tijekom civilizacija Brončanog doba (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, u pripremi)] Između mnogih nuspojava kometarnog bombardiranja su potresi, tsunamiji i vulkanske erupcije. Naime, dogodio se važan vulkanski događaj u vrijeme sloma civilizacije Brončanog doba koji nam daje čvrsto utvrđen datum: Thera. Nedavna otkrića objavljena u izdanju časopisa Science iz travnja 2006. godine utvrđuju datum erupcije između 1627. i 1600. god. pr. Kr. s 95% sigurnosti. To je, naravno, odbijeno od strane mnogih arheologa zato što su oni proveli svoje cijele karijere pokušavajući datirati stvari prema Bibliji, a najteža stvar za njih je prihvatiti da su trčali za iluzijom. Yoshiyuki Fujii i Okitsugu Watanabe su demonstrirali da je “moguće da su se opsežne ekološke promjene dogodile na Južnoj hemisferi sredinom holocena”. [Koncentracija mikročestica i električna provodljivost ledene jezgre A 700m s Mizuho stanice Antarktik, objavljeno u Anali glaciologije (1-, 1988. god.) str. 38-42] (Unutar zadnjih 10000 godina). Njihovi dubinski profili koncentracije mikročestica, električne provodljivosti, te kisika 18 iz oko 1600. godine pr. Kr., ukazuju na visoka očitanja svih ovih elemenata. Dokazi pokazuju da je ovaj poremećaj pokrivao ovo određeno razdoblje, ali s “ogromnim vrhuncem” 1600. godine pr. Slični dokazi postoje o vremenu 5200 godina pr. Taj period pokazuje manje snažan, ali sličan klimatološki nemir. Profil kisika 18 je blizu normale, ali postoji vidljivi pojas vulkanskog blata. Datiranje ovog segmenta nije tako blizu, jer je očito da nitko ni ne traži ovaj ciklus, ali čini se da se poklapa s pojasom pepela jezgre Byrd postaje. [pogledaj G. Cope Schellhorn, Ph.D.:Evidence of Cyclical Earth Changes, iz When Men are Gods] U članku časopisa Nature iz studenog 1980. godine, C. Hammer, H. Clausen i Dansgaard datiraju poremećaj ledene jezge iz Camp Centuryja na 5470 godina pr. To se uspoređuje s predloženom Hekla erupcijom koja je datirana radiokarbonski na 5450. god. pr. Postoji primjetno visok signal kiselosti u ovim presjecima jezgre što ukazuje na visoku razinu vulkanske aktivnosti – ponovno, točno na oznaci ciklusa od 3600 godina. Sluti se da ciklus prolazi neopaženo zbog dugoročnih posljedica, kao što je hladna klima, kao i činjenica da svaki ciklus ima veći ili manji utjecaj na Zemlju, ovisno o određenim dinamičkim interakcijama unutar Sunčevog sustava. Ono što je jasno je da se nešto dogođa na intervalima od 3600 godina kao što pokazuju ledene jezgre, te je sposobno pokrenuti dugotrajna razdoblja zemaljskih promjena koje su iznad razine običnih uniformitarijanskih geoloških i klimatoloških promjena. Gledajući dalje: Michael R. Legrand i Robert J. Delmas s Laboratorija glaciologije i geofizike okoliša su objavili članak Topljive nečistoće iz četiri ledene jezgre tijekom zadnjih 30000 godina. [Anali glaciologije, 10, 1988., str. 116-120] U članku su grafički prikazali varijacije kisika 18 i ionske sastojke Na, NH4; Ca2; H; Cl; NO3; SO4. Vremenski razmjer za razinu svakog ionskog sastojka kao i za razine O18 se proteže unazad 30 000 godina. Grafikon prikazuje korelacije s vrhuncima u 5200. god. pr. Kr., cca. 16 000. god. pr. Kr., te cca. 19 600. god. pr. Sve to su bila vremena velikih geoloških stresova. Kada gledamo u podatke i uzmemo u obzir priznate nepreciznosti u datiranju (neki rasponi u datumima mogu biti do 100 godina u bilo kojem smjeru vrhunca, iako su vrhunci regularni i ritmički) nama bližih datuma, te odstupanje od 300 do 600 godina za starije datume – posebice kad razmotrimo da su ovo opće analize i da nitko nije tražio nešto određeno – oni su samo rekli “vau! pogledajte tu valovitu liniju!” – nalazimo da jezgre leda s juga ne bilježe uvijek jednako onim sa sjevera. Događaj iz 1628. god. pr. Kr., koji je zaista ostavio pečat u godovima drveća Sjeverne hemisfere, ne pokazuje skoro nikakvi zapis u jezgrama Antarktike u smislu vulkanske aktivnosti. Ali sjeverne jezgre pokazuju aktivnost s početkom u 1644. god. pr. Dokaz za događaj iz 5200. god. pr. Kr. je jak u Kupola C jezgri. Događaj iz 8800. god. pr. Kr. je dobro zabilježen – u stvari, čini se da je on najjači od svih. Prisjetite se da je to bilo prije 10 800 godina – točno unutar dosega datuma o kojima su izvijestili Herodot i Platon. Varijacija izotopa kisika 18 je primjetljiva, porast morske soli, povišene razine C1 i C1/Na. Postoji ekstremni vrhunac u SO4 i H očitanjima što ukazuje na rasprostranjenu vulkansku aktivnost – velike zemaljske promjene su se događale u to vrijeme, a ostale su zabilježene u klimi, oceanima, te očuvane u ledu. Događaj iz 12 400. god. pr. Kr. je također ekstremno istaknut u jezgrama. Grafikoni prikazuju brzu, veliku promjenu uključujući kraj Wisconsin ledenog doba. Postoji velika varijacija izotopa kisika 18 kao i vrhunci Na, te vrlo izraženi vrhunci Ca, SO4 i H. Nema sumnje da se Santorini događaj dogodio. Signal kiseline u ledenim jezgrama je jako snažan. Što znači da ima jako malo sumnje o tome kad se dogodio. Nešto vrlo neobično i specifično se tada dogodilo, počevši 1644. pr. Kr. i dosegnuvši vrhunac u velikoj kataklizmi, te se čini da je pregazilo područje Egeja i Anatolije, ostavljajući tragove koje je nemoguće promašiti. Nemoguće za ikoga, to jest osim egiptologe i druge njihove vrste. Diljem Mediterana su postojala kraljevstva i kulture koje su komunicirale i međusobno trgovale. Čitajući mnoge knjige o svakoj regiji koje su napisali razni stručnjaci o različitim kulturama, uzastopno se susrećemo s činjenicom da je period teškog poremećaja zabilježen u povijesnim i arheološkim zapisima. Na neki način, takav događaj u jednoj regiji nije nužno povezan sa sličnim događajem u drugoj regiji. Ideja da su svi poremećaji u određenom okvirnom vremenskom razdoblju možda istovremeni se ne može uzeti u obzir zato što bi to poremetilo pažljivo izgrađenu kronologiju koja se temelji na beskrajnim radnjama tetrafiloktomije. [Cijepanje dlake na četiri dijela; termin kojeg je osmislio Umberto Eco u Foucaultovom njihalu]. U njegovoj knjizi Stratigraphic Comparée et Chronologie de l’Asie Occidentale, [London, tisak Sveučilišta Oxford, 1948.] Claudeovo Shaefferovo životno arheološko istraživanje ga je dovelo da predloži da je velika prirodna katastrofa uzrokovala kraj Srednjeg egipatskog kraljevstva, te da je također vatrom i potresom uništila skoro svaku drugu naseljenu regiju Krete, Cipra, Kavkaza, Sirije, Palestine, Perzije i Male Azije općenito. To je jedan pakleni “lokalni događaj.” Jedino je logično zaključiti da su Santorini događaj i kraj Srednjeg brončanog doba jedan te isti događaj. I dogodilo se prije malo više od 3600 godina. Drugim riječima, mi smo već prošli datum kada se izumiranje trebalo dogoditi. Sada se vratimo onome što sam spomenula iznad – o tome da smo na pola puta od 26 milijuna godina orbite zvijezde pratioca. Stvarno nemamo pojma gdje je to teoretizirano “stvorenje” ili što radi, ali imamo neke naznake. Ali prvo pitanje koje želimo postaviti je – koja je relacija između ove zvijezde pratioca (Nemesisa) i izumiranja? Kako može zvijezda, daleko izvan Sunčevog sustava, imati utjecaj na treći kamenčić od Sunca? Daleko iza orbite Plutona leži Oortov oblak. Oortov oblak (ponekad se naziva i Öpik-Oortov oblak) je pretpostavljeni sferni oblak kometa na udaljenosti od oko 50 000 do 100 000 AJ od Sunca. Ovo je približno za 2000 puta veća udaljenost od Sunca do Plutona ili, grubo rečeno, jedna svjetlosna godina, skoro četvrtina udaljenosti od Sunca do Proxima Centauri, Suncu najbliže zvijezde. Kliknite na sliku iznad kako biste proučili veći primjerak. Solarni sustav je potpuno okružen ovim oblakom koji sadrži milijarde kometa. Zamislite što bi se dogodilo da zvijezda prođe kroz taj oblak, udarajući komete na isti način kojim kugla za kuglanje razbacuje čunjeve u svim smjerovima. Zamislite tada kako se određen broj tih kometa kreće prema središtu oblaka – našem Suncu i njegovom solarnom sustavu. Sunce, koje je najveći objekt u susjedstvu, bi bilo točka privlačenja. Kometi u nadolazećem oblaku bi bili povučeni u orbitu oko Sunca. Iako ne postoje direktna promatranja takvog oblaka, vjeruje se da je on izvor većine ili svih kometa koji ulaze u unutarnji Sunčev sustav (neki kratkotrajni kometi mogu doći iz Kuiperovog pojasa), bazirano na opažanjima orbita kometa. Do sada, otkriven je samo jedan potencijalni objekt iz Oortovog oblaka; 90377 Sedna. S orbitom koja varira u rasponu od otprilike 76 do 928 AJ, puno je bliže nego što je prvobitno očekivano i može pripadati “unutarnjem” Oortovom oblaku. Ako Sedna doista pripada Oortovom oblaku, to može značiti da je Oortov oblak i gušći i bliži Suncu nego što se prije mislilo. Dakle, imamo mehanizam koji hipotetski može pokrenuti lansiranje skupine kometa u Sunčev sustav. Orbita pretpostavljenog binarnog blizanca našeg Sunca odgovara ciklusima velikih izumiranja na Zemlji. Ali to je još uvijek hipoteza. Još važnije, možda se pitate, čak i ako dodijelimo visoku vjerojatnost istinitosti toj hipotezi, ako se ovi ciklusi događaju svakih 26 milijuna godina, kakve dokaze imamo da ćemo biti živi tijekom jednog od, da kažemo, nesretnih perioda? Jedan od zaključaka Nemesis teorije je da tamni pratioc možda može postati vidljiv kao drugo sunce na nebu kad bude najbliže Suncu. Postoje li dokazi koji možda upućuju da su ljudi ikada vidjeli “drugo sunce”? U svojoj knjizi Comets and Popular Culture and the Birth of Modern Cosmology, Sara J. Schechner piše: Sunčana dispozicija vremena tijekom krunidbe (Karla II) viđena je kao ispunjenje proročanstva. 1630. godine, tijekom Karlovog rođenja, podnevna zvijeda ili sunce suparnik navodno se pojavilo na nebu. Aurelian Cook u Titus Britannicus objasnio je njegovu važnost: ‘Čim je rođen, Nebo ga je primijetilo, te ga promatralo kroz zvijezdu, koja se pojavila prkoseći Suncu u podne…’ Za Cooka, dodatno sunce je najavilo da Karlo vlada božanskim pravom. Povrh toga, vrijeme Karlovog ulaska u London na svoj rođendan, politički je proračunato da ispuni ono što je predviđeno pri njegovom rođenju. Abraham Cowley, pjesnik, diplomat i špijun za dvor napisao je: ‘Nijedna Zvijezda između svih vas, vjerujem, nije tako snažnu pomoć dala, kao ona koja je prije trideset godina, pri Karlovom rođenju, usprkos ponosnom Sunčevu meridijanskom svijetlu, njegovu buduću slavu, u toj godini predvidjela.’ Edward Matthew je posvetio čitavu knjigu ispunjenju proročanstva proglasujući Karla “određenim da bude Najmoćniji monarh u svemiru…” Karlov povratak je viđen kao ponovno rođenje Engleske i to je zabilježeno u knjizi statuta, gdje je proglašeno da je 29. svibnja nezaboravan dan rođenja, ne samo njegova veličanstva kao čovjeka i princa, nego i kao pravog kralja… Pa, to definitivno zvuči kao prikladno: prije 377 godina drugo sunce se pojavilo i nitko, koliko ja znam, nije ovo povezao s kometom ili supernovom. Interesantno je da je trideset godina kasnije to popraćeno viđenjem nekoliko kometa. Ali 17. stoljeće je bilo zanimljivo zbog još jedne anomalije koja uključuje naše Sunce: Maunderov minimum. Između 1654. i 1715. godine, naše Sunce je bilo u periodu solarnog minimuma. Tijekom jednog 30-godišnjeg perioda unutar Maunderovog minimuma, na primjer, astronomi su uočili samo 50 Sunčevih pjega, nasuprot tipičnom broju od 40 000–50 000 pjega. Maunderov minimum se podudarao sa srednjim – najhladnijim dijelom – takozvanog Malog ledenog doba, tijekom kojeg su Europa i Sjeverna Amerika, a možda i većina ostatka svijeta, bili izloženi jako neugodnim hladnim zimama. Nedavno objavljeno istraživanje upućuje na to da se Sunčeva rotacija usporila sredinom Maunderovog minimuma (1666.-1700. godine). Prema našoj sadašnjoj razini shvaćanja solarne fizike, veće i sporije Sunce nužno podrazumijeva i hladnije Sunce koje dostavlja manje topline na Zemlju. Možda je blisko približavanje tamnog pratioca, govoreći astronomski, bio uzrok ove prigušenosti. Smanjena solarna aktivnost tijekom Maunderovog minimuma također je utjecala na količinu kozmičke radijacije koja je dosezala na Zemlju. Rezultirajuća promjena u proizvodnji C14 tijekom tog perioda izazvala je netočnost u radiokarbonskom datiranju sve dok ovaj efekt nije pronađen. Sveukupno, analize ugljika 14, kao i studije godova drveća i ledenih jezgri, ukazuju da je bilo 18 perioda s minimalnom količinom Sunčevim pjegama u zadnjih 8000 godina, a studije pokazuju da Sunce trenutno provodi četvrtinu svog vremena u ovim minimumima. Možemo samo nagađati trenutno, imaju li ovi ciklusi vezu s našim tamnim pratiocem i/ili njegovom kometarnom djecom. Vraćajući se na našu hipotezu, ako smo u pravu, tamna zvijezda je viđena prije 377 godina. Ako je to stvarno bio pratioc, Nemesis, onda bi kometi koji idu prema unutrašnjem solarnom sustavu trebali ići u našem smjeru. Ovisno o lokaciji i orbiti u Oortovom oblaku, postojale bi razne grupe – s varijacijama u veličini i vremenu dolaska. Postoje li dokazi za to? Treće izdanje sveučilišnog udžbenika Exploration of the Universe, kojeg je napisao George O. Abell, objavljenog 1975. godine, informira nas da Jupiter od 1974. godine ima 9 mjeseca. Piše: Vanjskih sedam, doduše, imaju donekle ekscentričnu orbitu, neki od njih imaju veliki nagib prema Jupiterovom ekvatoru. Četiri najudaljenija satelita okreću se od istoka prema zapadu, suprotno gibanju većine drugih objekata u solarnom sustavu. Oni bi mogli biti prijašnji manji planeti koje je uhvatio Jupiter. Primijetite da Abell predlaže da su neki od Jupiterovih mjeseca zarobljeni Jupiterovom gravitacijom. Sada putujmo kroz vrijeme u budućnost, te pogledajmo što nam najnovije informacije govore o Jupiterovim mjesecima: Jupiter sada ima 63 satelita. 47 od tih satelita je otkriveno nakon 1999. godine. Što ako oni nisu prije bili tamo? A što je sa Saturnom? Naš tekst iz 1975. godine nam govori da Saturn ima 10 satelita. A u 2007. godini? Pa ima ih toliko puno da pojedini izvor odbija dati precizan broj! Međutim, brojeći imenovane satelite na vremenskoj liniji otkrivanja planeta Sunčevog sustava i njihovih prirodnih satelita, daje nam broj od 62 mjeseca, s 41 satelitom otkrivenim od 2000. godine, te još deset u ’80-ima i ’90-ima. Dolazimo do Urana, kojem je 1975. godine pripisano pet satelita, a sada ima 28, 10 otkrivenih u ’80-ima, 6 u ’90-ima, a 7 je otkriveno od 2000. godine. Neptun je 1975. godine imao dva satelita, a sada ima 13. Tablica 1. Broj satelita Objašnjenje koje se najčešće daje za ovaj veliki porast u broju satelita tih planeta je da su teleskopi postali bolji. To jest, možemo vidjeti dalje, s više detalja, te možemo stoga naći stvari koje prije nismo mogli vidjeti. To je objašnjenje koje ima smisla. Jedan mali problem s ovom teorijom je da su se “novi” mjeseci Neptuna i Urana pojavili prije novih mjeseca Jupitera i Saturna. Netko bi pomislio da bi moćni teleskopi, koji su sposobni za pronalazak mjeseca toliko daleko kao što je sedmi ili osmi planet, teško mogli promašiti mjesece petog i šestog planeta. Drugo moguće objašnjenje, ono koje se najbolje uklapa u pojavljivanje novih mjeseca oko Neptuna i Urana prije pojavljivanja oko Jupitera i Saturna, je da su ovi novi mjeseci, ili neki od njih, objekti koji su zarobljeni u orbite oko ovih planeta tek nedavno, te da su zarobljeni gravitacijom ovih planeta i maknuti iz nadolazećeg kometarnog oblaka. Prolazeći najprije orbite vanjskih planeta, stigli bi kasnije do unutrašnjih planeta. Također napominjemo da ismijani Immanuel Velikovsky, u svojoj knjizi Worlds in Collision, daje vremenski okvir od devet godina kao vrijeme koje bi trebalo kometu da prijeđe udaljenost između Jupitera i Zemlje. Novi jovijanski mjeseci su otkriveni početkom kasnih devedesetih godina. Izračunajte. To nas dovodi do serije lokalnih priča koje udarima daju manje nego metaforičko značenje. U petak, 16. veljače 2007. godine, SOTT.net stranica donijela nam je ovu priču: Čudna buka je možda bila od meteora Napisao JIM SABIN Newark Advocate NEWARK – Nešto se dogodilo oko 21:00, u srijedu, što su mnogi ljudi čuli ili čak osjetili. Što je to bilo, međutim, možda će zauvijek ostati zagonetka. “To” je bio jak udarac, nešto tako glasno da se čulo preko južnog i centralnog Ohija, SAD, te dovoljno glasno da se mali objekti u kući pomaknu. Izvješća su stizala u The Advocate od Hanovera do Healtha, od Buckeye Lakea do Granvillea, a NBC4 je čuo izvješća iz Muskinguma, Fairfielda i Pickaway okruga. Kruže glasine o potresu i meteorskom udaru, te da je zvučni udar nastao od nečega povezanog s ledom. Jeff Gill iz Grainvillea je rekao da je vidio meteor s relativno dugačkim repom, s crvenim, zelenim i zlatnim bojama. Kretao se od istoka prema zapadu i trajalo je oko tri sekunde; nakon što je nestao, osjetio je zvučni udar, rekao je. “Ja sam ga prvi vidio. Bio je jezovit, kul, strašan i čudesan. Samo se vidi taj zmajev rep kako ide kroz nebo,” rekao je Gill, koji također piše religijsku kolumnu za The Advocate. “Odjednom je sve prožela eksplozija.” […] Izvješća su pristizala od Ohija do New Jerseya, SAD. Primijetite usporedbu sa zmajevim repom. Mogu li izvješća o meteorima biti baza za neke od drevnih mitova o zmajevima koji lete po nebu? Pogledajte knjigu Mikea Bailliea Exodus to Arthur za više o toj temi. Prije nekoliko tjedana, dok je većina SAD-a gledala XLI Super Bowl, neki ljudi na srednje-zapadnom dijelu SAD-a su gledali drugi tip spektakla: Lokalni stanovnici svjedoče vatrenom bljesku meteora. Ako ste vidjeli jarku svjetlost s vatrenim repom kako se spušta na Zemlju u nedjelju navečer, možda ste vidjeli manji meteorski pljusak, prema izvještajimaa iz Wisconsina, Illinoisa i Iowe. James T. Luedke iz Ripona, SAD, je rekao da se vozio u Green Lake Countyju između 19:30 i 20:00 sati u nedjelju kad je vidio “vatrenu kuglu veličine pola dolara kako pada brzo prema Zemlji” na južnom nebu. On ju je opisao kao okruglu, narančastu vatrenu kuglu s plavim/zelenim repom. Kay Diederich iz St. Clouda je vozila izvan sela oko 19:50 s prijateljicom kada su vidjele “kuglu vatre” kako pada prema jugu. “Skoro pa je izgledalo kao pad aviona,” rekla je. Njezina prijateljica je medicinska tehničarka hitne službe i slušala je svoj skener, ali nije bilo izvješća. Ljudi diljem Srednjeg zapada SAD-a su prijavili viđenje kugli vatre koje prolaze nebom u nedjelju navečer, prema izvješćima državnih vijesti. Prethodno izvješće spominje da su objekti došli od meteora. Većina izvješća opisuje objekte kao jarka svjetla s gorućim repom. Nekoliko objekata je viđeno kako eksplodiraju pri udaru u Zemlju, prema izvještaju WEAU-a. Viđenja su prijavljivana od Minnesote do Missourija, te na istoku do Illinoisa, SAD. Onda imamo izvješće od 7. veljače 2007. godine iz Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva: Meteor osvjetljuje nebo. Napisala Rachel Pegg The Argus Meteor je viđen kako pada na Zemlju. Zvijezda padalica je bila prožeta jarkim plamenovima dok je padala prema tlu iznad Hangletona, Hove, jučer oko 20:15. Da ne spominjem izvješće iz Turske: Meteorit sletio u Didim. Petak, 02. veljače 2007. Voices POLICIJA je bila opterećena brojnim pozivima ljudi od Didima do Bodruma, Turska, nakon što su čuli jak udar i vidjeli bljesak svjetla na nebu. Unatoč tome što policajci nisu mogli objasniti bljeskove zelenog, žutog i crvenog svijetla, Voices je riješio problem. Nije to bio NLO, nego meteorit koji se probio kroz Zemljinu atmosferu i sletio u Yeşilkent. Iznenađeni Abdullah Aritűrk otkrio je da je kamen probio rupu u zemlji kod Green Park Complexa, u Yeşilkentu, tijesno promašivši njegovu kuću za deset metara. Policija je izvijestila da su ljudi iz Bodruma, Milasa i Didima čuli udarac i vidjeli bljesak svjetla preko neba oko 17:30 u četvrtak (31. siječnja). Gospodin Aritűrk je rekao: “Mislio sam da je to kraj. Mislio sam da je apokalipsa. Vidio sam udarac i bljeskove svijetla, i ovaj kamen je udario u zemlju blizu mene. Bilo je jako strašno.” Nakon što je ispričao svoju priču Voices-u, gospodin Aritűrk sada čeka znanstvenike iz Aegean Sveučilišta, u Izmiru, Turska, da preuzmu meteorit radi pobližeg istraživanja. Na sreću, nitko nije ozlijeđen s ovim meteorima, ali ljudi u Indiji nisu bili tako sretni: Troje poginulih u padu meteorita u Rajasthanu u Indiji. DPA 8. veljače 2007. Troje ljudi je poginulo i četvero je ozlijeđeno u misterioznoj eksploziji u selu u indijskoj sjevernoj saveznoj državi Rajasthan u četvrtak, za što mještani tvrde da je uzrok meteorit, kažu novinski izvještaji. Stanovnici sela Banchol u distriktu Bundi, oko 200 km južno od Rajasthanskog glavnog grada Jaipura, su rekli da su žrtve sjedile s otpacima željeza na otvorenom polju kada je “objekt” pao s neba i pogodio ih, izvijestila je novinska agencija IANS. “Slučaj je pod istragom. Znamo da je bila eksplozija, ali gledajući krater ne čini se da se dogodilo zbog meteorita,” IANS citirao je policijskog službenika iz Bundija. On je rekao da je krater samo 8-10 inča (20-25 cm, op. prev.) u promjeru i 2 inča (5 cm, op. prev.) dubok. Tim iz državnog forenzičkog znanstvenog laboratorija u Jaipuru je skupljao dokaze s mjesta događaja, rekao je službenik. Onda imamo meteorit koji je nedavno probio kuću u New Jerseyu, SAD, te se usadio u zid: Mogući pad meteorita kroz kuću u New Jerseyu. Napisao Chris Newmaker Associated Press 4. siječnja 2007. Freehold Township, New Jersey – Vlasti su pokušavale identificirati misteriozni metalni objekt koji je probio krov kuće u istočnom New Jerseyu. Nitko nije ozlijeđen kada je objekt veličine golf loptice, težine skoro kao limenka juhe, pogodio dom i usadio se u zid u utorak navečer.Federalni službenici koji su poslani na scenu su rekli da nije od zrakoplova. Objekt grube vanjštine, s metalnim odsjajem, izložen je u srijedu od strane policije. “Postoji veliki interes za ovo što imamo ovdje,” rekao je narednik Robert Brightman. “Jako je neobično. Nikad u karijeri nisam vidio ništa slično.” Rekao je da se nada da će se objekt identificirati unutar 72 sata, ali je odbio dati imena drugih agencija čiju je pomoć zatražio. Otprilike 20-50 kamenolikih objekata padne svaki dan diljem planeta, rekao je Carlton Pryor, profesor astronomije na Rutgers Sveučilištu. “Nije baš tako neuobičajeno da kamenje pada s neba,” rekao je Pryor, koji nije vidio objekt koji je pogodio kuću u Manmouth Countyju. “Obično su kameniti ili mješavina kamena i metala.” […] I koliba uništena meteoritom u Njemačkoj u listopadu 2006.: Njemačka koliba uništena meteorom. Reuters 20. listopada 2006. BERLIN (Reuters) – Vatra koja je uništila kolibu blizu Bonna i ozlijedila 77-godišnjaka vjerojatno je uzrokovana meteorom, a svjedoci su vidjeli luk blještećeg svjetla na nebu, njemačka policija je izjavila u petak. Burkhard Rick, glasnogovornik policije u Siegburgu istočno od Bonna rekao je da je vatra progutala kolibu i teško opekla čovjekove ruke i lice u događaju 10. listopada. “Potražili smo pomoć s Bochum zvjezdarnice i oni su primijetili da je u tom određenom trenutku Zemlja bila blizu polja krhotina meteorita i može se pretpostaviti da su čestice ušle u atmosferu,” rekao je. “Čestice većinom ne dosegnu površinu zato što se raspadnu u atmosferi,” dodao je. “Ali neke mogu doprijeti do tla. Mi vjerujemo da je ovo bolid (meteorska vatrena kugla) veličinom ne većom od 10 mm.” I padajući led koji je pogodio auto u Floridi: Misteriozni, veliki blok leda je pao na auto čovjeka iz Tampe. TAMPA, FL (AP) – Raymond Rodriguez je mijenjao gumu kada je komad leda od 18 inča (45 cm, op. prev.) pao s neba praćen probadajućim zviždukom, a onda se čulo metalno škripanje. Ledeni komad je razbio krov obližnjeg Ford Mustanga u nedjelju ujutro. Nitko nije ozlijeđen. “Bio sam uplašen,” rekao je Rodriguez, koji je bio samo nekoliko stopa od auta, “To je ludo, čovječe.” Federalna zrakoplovna administracija pregledava raspored letova kako bi vidjeli je li led pao iz aviona. Led nije imao plavu boju koja bi ukazivala da je došao iz zahoda aviona. Nacionalna vremenska služba je rekla da uvjeti u Tampi nisu bili pogodni za formaciju velikih kugli leda, poznatih kao mega-krio-meteori. “Nije to božje djelo,” rekao je Carlos Javage, otac čovjeka kojem je misteriozni led uništio auto. “Ovo je došlo iz aviona.” Dakle, kako gledati na ovo iznenadno pojavljivanje toliko mnogo meteora, koji se događaju “jednom u životu”, širom globusa? Bilo što? Slučajnost? Ili nešto drugo? Sastavit ćemo pregled podataka koje smo skupljali i istaknuti radnu hipotezu koju moramo objasniti. Nemamo puno nade, da vam odmah u početku kažemo. Vrlo lako bi Tunguska u usporedbi mogla izgledati poput petarde. Tunguska eksplozija je opisana ovako: Eksplozija je vjerojatno uzrokovana detonacijom meteorita ili kometa na visini od 6 do 10 kilometara iznad Zemljine površine. Energija udara je kasnije procijenjena na 10-15 megatona TNT-a, a što bi bio ekvivalent bombi Castle Bravo – najsnažnijoj nuklearnoj bombi ikada detoniranoj od strane SAD-a. Procijenjeno je da je srušila 60 milijuna stabala na površini od 2150 kvadratnih kilometara. Dvojni sustav Kada gledamo naše nebo vidimo samo jedno sunce. Mi naravno zaključujemo da naš zvjezdani sustav uključuje samo jednu zvijezdu. Ipak, dvojni zvjezdani sustavi su jako česti. Postoji hipoteza koja argumentira da je naše Sunce dio takvog binarnog sustava. Sunčev hipotetski pratioc nazvan je, kako je već spomenuto iznad, “Nemesis”. Projicirana orbita Nemesisa je 26 milijuna godina, manje ili više ovisno o vremenu potrebnom za rast ili pad nekoliko civilizacija. Studije fosilnih podataka od strane Davea Raupa i Jacka Sepkoskija pokazale su da postoji cikličko ponavljanje razdoblja izumiranja. Nemesis teorija je korištena kako bi se objasnio ciklus izumiranja. Ne možemo ponuditi dokaze za radnu hipotezu koja je navedena gore. Radimo s ograničenim skupom podataka. Najviše što možemo reći je da se može argumentirati predlažući sljedeći scenarij: Sunčev tamni pratioc, na svojoj orbiti od 26 milijuna godina, došao je blizu Sunčevog sustava prije 377 godina, otkrivajući se i gurajući ispred sebe komete, nekolicina kojih se pojavila prije trideset godina nakon pojave same tamne zvijezde 1630. godine. Prolazak pratioca kroz Oortov oblak, povlačeći stotine tisuća drugih tijela u svom pojavljivanju, zaljuljao ih je u svojoj orbiti, te poslao skupinu njih prema nama, putujući sada skoro četiri stotine godina. Članovi te skupine pokupljeni su gravitacijskim poljima vanjskih planeta, povećavajući broj mjeseca posljednjih godina. Ako je skupina prošla Jupiter, onda možda dolazi ovdje jako brzo. Jesu li članci izvučeni iz novina diljem svijeta zadnjih nekoliko mjeseci najava njihovog dolaska? Jedna završna pojedinost. Postoje izvješća da Zemlja nije jedini planet koji je pogođen “globalnim zatopljenjem”. Je li moguće da je ova naoko dalekosežna promjena u “klimi” u Sunčevom sustavu, povezana s nadolazećim kometarnim oblakom? Ne znamo i krajnje nam nedostaje sredstava da pribavimo podatke kako bi rafiniralli ili odbili radnu hipotezu. Možda netko drugi tamo vani ima mogućnosti. Kakvo god da je objašnjenje za generalizirano zatopljenje nekoliko planeta, jasno je da znamo jako malo o osnovnim mehanizmima iza toga. Mi smo mrlja u svemiru, kap u oceanu većem, složenijem i misterioznijem nego što možemo zamisliti. Za kraj, želim citirati iz zadnjih stranica knjige Ciklus kozmičkih katastrofa: poplave, vatra i glad u povijesti civilizacije zato što te riječi trebaju imati značenje za sve nas. NE BAŠ TAKO BEZOPASNE ZVIJEZDE PADALICE Ako želite više dokaza o onome što se dogodilo mamutima, samo trebate pogledati u vedro noćno nebo. U gotovo svakom mjesecu možete vidjeti zvijezde padalice iz jedne od mnogih kiša meteora. Gotovo svaki vatreni trag na nebu je mali ostatak nekog divovskog kometa koji se raspao u mnogo manjih dijelova. Naravno, najveći dio tih dijelova je mikroskopske veličine, ali takav nije bio i njihov roditeljski komet – on je imao divovske razmjere. Astronomi znaju da čak i danas, skrivene u tim svemirskim oblacima sitnih ostataka, jure i neke ogromne gromade dijelova kometa. Svake godine prolazimo kroz njihove oblake poput mehanizma sata, tako da ćemo se na kraju i sudariti s nekim od većih dijelova. Godine 1990., astrofizičar Victor Clube i astronom Bill Napier su objavili zajednički rad pod nazivom Kozmička zima, knjigu u kojoj su opisali izvođenje orbitalnih analiza nekoliko meteorskih rojeva koji pogađaju Zemlju svake godine. Koristeći sofisticiranu računalnu opremu i programe, pažljivo su gledali na tisuće godina u prošlost, ucrtavajući orbite kometa, asteroida i meteorskih rojeva, sve dok nisu naišli na nešto zapanjujuće. Mnogi su meteorski rojevi povezani jedan s drugim, poput Taurida, Perzeida, Piscida i Orionida. Osim toga, povezani su i neki veoma veliki svemirski objekti: kometi Encke i Rudnicki, asteroidi Oljato, Hefest, te oko stotinu drugih. Svako od tih više od stotinu svemirskih tijela ima promjer od najmanje 800 metara, a neki od njih su široki i kilometrima. A što im je svima zajedničko? Prema ovim znanstvenicima, svaki od njih je potomak istog golemog kometa, koji je ušao u naš sustav prije manje od 20 000 godina! Clube i Napier su izračunali da je taj komet izvorno morao biti divovske veličine, kada bi mu se pridodao sav onaj otpad koji su pronašli kao njegov trag po čitavom Sunčevom sustavu. Je li to bio ubojica mega-faune za kojim tragamo? Sve se poznate činjenice uklapaju. Komet je mogao stići na valu supernove, [ili ga je zvijezda pratioc gurnula u Sunčev sustav – Laura Knight Jadczyk], a zatim krenuti u orbitu oko Sunca prije manje od 20 000 godina; ili, ako je već bio ovdje, tada ga je materijal supernove mogao skrenuti na putanju koja je presijecala Zemljinu orbitu. U svakom slučaju, kad god pogledamo u noćno nebo i prelijepu, blještavu predstavu koju nam priređuju zvijezde padalice, moramo se prisjetiti da ta ljepota ima i svoju ružnu stranu. Vrlo je vjerojatno da pritom gledamo u ostatke krhotina čudovišnog kometa, koji je prije 12-13 tisuća godina pobio 40 milijuna životinja na našem planetu. Clube i Napier su također izračunali da zbog finih pomaka i promjena u orbiti Zemlje i orbiti preostalih svemirskih krhotina, Zemlja prolazi kroz najgušći dio divovskih oblaka kometa otprilike svakih 2000 do 4000 godina [ili 3600 godina?]. Pogledamo li na ritam promjena klime i tragove u ledenim jezgrama, možemo vidjeti taj obrazac događanja. Primjerice, čini se da iridij, helij-3, nitrat, amonijak i druga ključna mjerenja zajedno rastu i padaju, stvarajući uočljive vrhunce prije otprilike 18 000, 16 000, 13 000, 9000, 5000 i 2000 godina. U tim obrascima vrhunaca svakih 2000 do 4000 godina, možda možemo vidjeti “nagovještaje” povrataka tog mega-kometa. Na našu sreću, izgleda da su se najteža bombardiranja događala u vrijeme onih najstarijih vrhunaca, te da je od tada postajalo sve mirnije kako su se ostaci kometa na svom putovanju razbijali u sve manje dijelove. No, opasnost još nije prošla. Neki od tih razlomljenih kilometarskih komada su dovoljno veliki da učine ozbiljnu štetu našim gradovima, klimi i globalnom gospodarstvu. Clube i Napier su 1984. godine predvidjeli da će od 2000. godine Zemlja ući u novo, vrlo opasno razdoblje, koje će potrajati idućih 400 godina. U tom će nas razdoblju promjena orbite planeta dovesti na moguću putanju sudaranja s najgušćim dijelovima oblaka koji sadrže i vrlo velike krhotine. Dvadeset godina nakon njihovog predviđanja, upravo smo ušli u opasnu zonu. Široko je prihvaćena činjenica da neki od tih velikih objekata upravo u ovom trenutku presijecaju putanju Zemlje, a jedina neizvjesnost je hoće li nas promašiti, što je najvjerojatnije, ili će ipak udariti u neki dio našeg planeta. To se može činiti kao loša vijest, no također postoji i tračak dobre vijesti. Po prvi put u poznatoj povijesti čovječanstva imamo načine za pravodobno otkrivanje ovakvih opasnosti i pronalaženje takvih objekata, te ih stoga možemo i spriječiti da nas iznova pogode. Jedno od takvih nastojanja je projekt pod nazivom Spaceguard, zajednički pokušaj više naroda da se pronađu takvi objekti koji prijete Zemlji, a drugi slični programi uključuju teleskop NEAT ili Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking, te projekt Spacewatch kojim se bave na Sveučilištu Arizona, SAD. Nažalost, ovi projekti zasad ne raspolažu sredstvima dostatnim da bi se taj posao obavio kroz dugi niz godina, premda se neprestano radi na tome. Nitko ne zna točno koliko je opasnih kometa i asteroida tamo vani, ali su astronomi sigurni da na tisuće njih ostaje neotkriveno. Najgore je to što su mnogi od tih svemirskih objekata toliko tamni da ih je teško zamijetiti prije nego se sasvim ne približe, a tada bi ionako bilo prekasno. Sigurno je i to da je jedno od ovih čudovišta na sudarnoj putanji sa Zemljom – samo, ne znamo daljnje pojedinosti. Je li udaljeno danima ili stotinama godina od današnjeg dana? Čak i kad bi bili sigurni da dolazi, trenutno bi u vezi s tim mogli učiniti vrlo malo. Još smo godinama udaljeni od trenutka kada ćemo biti u stanju nadzirati vlastitu sudbinu što su nam je dosad krojile supernove, golemi kometi i asteroidi, ali znanstvenici rade na rješenjima. Međutim, svjetske vlade ovo ne smatraju visokim prioritetom, one tipično daju prednost suočavanju s ovozemaljskim, a ne svemirskim prijetnjama. Kako bismo spriječili udar jednog od tih divovskih objekata u Zemlju, svi zajedno u svijetu trošimo oko 10 do 20 milijuna dolara godišnje, količinu koja je manja od troška proizvodnje jednog ili dva sofisticirana borbena zrakoplova. Na otkrivanje prijetećih supernova ne troši se gotovo ništa novca. Naši političari ozbiljno podcjenjuju ove velike prijetnje koje su u stanju uništiti našu vrstu na isti onaj način na koji su prije 13 000 godina istrijebile mamute, što je samo treptaj oka promatramo li u kozmičkim mjerilima. Postoji nekoliko prijetnji ovih razmjera s kojima se danas susrećemo. Preživljavanje čovječanstva nije ozbiljno ugroženo od ptičje gripe, napada Al-Qaede, završetka naftnog razdoblja, čudovišnih uragana, snažnih zemljotresa ili strahovitih tsunamija; kada bi se išta od toga dogodilo ovoga trena, većina nas bi nastavila normalno živjeti. Nadalje, opće je prihvaćeno da ništa od spomenutoga nije u prošlosti uzrokovalo izumiranja diljem svijeta. No, to ne možemo reći i za supernove ili masivne [kometarne] udare. Ova dva kozmička događaja su upletena u mnoga od najvećih izumiranja na našem planetu tijekom posljednjih milijuna godina. Srećom, preživjeli smo ih, ali mnoge od drugih vrsta na Zemlji nisu. Možda će sljedeće zahvatiti baš ljude, možda upravo mi nećemo preživjeti. Stoga se razumnim čini prijedlog, da se svake godine odreknemo nekoliko vojnih borbenih zrakoplova, te tako smanjimo mogućnost da nas neka supernova ili komet izbrišu s lica Zemlje. Dakle, zaista, čovječanstvo je prošlo datum kada je trebalo biti “istrijebljeno” i, kao što je bilo u dane Noe… Jeli su, pili, ženili se i udavali, sve do dana kad je Noa ušao u korablju, a tada je došao potop i sve ih uništio. Slično kao što bijaše u dane Lotove: jeli su, pili, kupovali, prodavali, sadili, gradili. A onog dana kad Lot iziđe iz Sodome, zapljušti s neba oganj i sumpor i sve uništi. SOTT.net je objavio članak Ivana Elanda, u kojem je on rekao: Trošiti sav taj novac za obranu od prijetnje koja je rijetka kao i katastrofalni komet koji pogađa SAD ima malo smisla. Kad bi NASA bila u mogućnosti koristiti iste taktike zastrašivanja kao DHS (Ministarstvo domovinske sigurnosti, op. prev.), možda bi svemirska agencija mogla uvjeriti nevoljki Kongres da im da bijednih milijardu dolara (u usporedbi) za svoj podjednako besmislen Spaceguard Survey program, koji prati asteroide i komete koji imaju jednaku vjerojatnost da ubiju Amerikance kao i teroristi. Kao što možete vidjeti iz članka iznad, gospodin Eland ne zna o čemu priča. Ali koliko ljudi na planeti zna? Koliko naših sugrađana ima ikakvog pojma da je ljudska vrsta prošla svoj datum izumiranja? Razmislite o tome kad sljedeći put vidite zvijezdu padalicu ili pročitate o vatrenoj kugli u novinama…