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Fire at Auckland Warehouse Caused by Meteorite Impact? (Update)
AstroEngine ^ | 12/15/08 | Ian O'Neill

Posted on 12/14/2008 11:06:09 PM PST by LibWhacker

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To: LibWhacker
it didn’t seem to break the sound barrier as it entered. It was going very fast and would have been burning at about 2,000 degrees

A meteor not breaking the sound barrier? Wow that's pretty slow. Something going that slow is not going to glow or burn. She contradicts herself.

To clarify, a meteorite is smaller than a metre in diameter and they are not that rare.

Any one with grade school science knows that size does not determine what makes a metorite. A meteor becomes a meteorite only if it reaches the ground.

21 posted on 12/15/2008 3:19:37 AM PST by feedback doctor (The first female president will be a Conservative Republican)
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To: gargoyle

Corona Extra and spellingz don’t blendz...;-)


22 posted on 12/15/2008 3:25:51 AM PST by Dallas59 (Not My President)
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To: gargoyle

I just took a gander at “The Day the Earth Stood Still” on OVGuide....it’s ok. It just doesn’t have anything worth talking about.


23 posted on 12/15/2008 3:27:42 AM PST by Dallas59 (Not My President)
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To: gargoyle

Their, they’re, there! Soon to be replaced by the multi-definitional “Thr.”
Hey! It could happen! After all, “flounder” has come to mean the exact same thing as “founder.”


24 posted on 12/15/2008 4:07:58 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ("Don't touch that thing")
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To: DieHard the Hunter

“Quite a desirable neighborhood for some folk.”

Gary,Indiana & Chicago,Illinois seem to fall into this catagory as well.

However I have yet in my life found a Reason to visit either of them !


25 posted on 12/15/2008 4:09:41 AM PST by CheezyChesster
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To: CheezyChesster

I like Chicago, it’s my kind of town!

I don’t *think* I’ve been to Gary...

As to Ponsonby, parking is always an issue, and I really can’t be bothered as a result. “Ponsonby Pies” used to be a great reason to find one’s self in Ponsonby, but since they began shipping their product to gas stations everywhere, once again why go to Ponsonby?

(Ponsonby Pies are arguably New Zealand’s nicest meat pies — staple food for Kiwis, sorta like hamburgers for Americans)


26 posted on 12/15/2008 4:15:02 AM PST by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: Nachoman
I bet their insurance policy has an exclusion for fires caused by meteorites.

Isn't meteor damage excluded under the "acts of Zeus" clause?

27 posted on 12/15/2008 4:41:55 AM PST by Puddleglum
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To: feedback doctor

Meteorites land at room temperature, basically. THe idea that they’re glowing or hot comes from the movies.


28 posted on 12/15/2008 5:05:12 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: Right Wing Assault
Remember Ponsonby Britt?

Gee, Rocky, wasn't he a television executive producer?

;-)

29 posted on 12/15/2008 5:16:02 AM PST by Jonah Hex ("Never underestimate the hungover side of the Force.")
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To: DieHard the Hunter
Meaterite?


30 posted on 12/15/2008 5:22:13 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (I'll give Obama the same amount of respect the left gave Bush)
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To: LibWhacker

My understanding is that meteorites are usually not hot when they hit. Their time in the atmosphere is too short to heat the internal parts, while the short intense heat ablates the surface away. By the time they hit the tropopause they have slowed down to subsonic speeds and broken apart unless they are huge. Which is not to say a big rock at 600 mph can’t crush a propane tank or something.


31 posted on 12/15/2008 5:37:08 AM PST by ko_kyi
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To: DieHard the Hunter

Interesting theory. If God can do this once, then He can certainly do it again. There are places on this earth (like San Francisco) where it might not pay to be too close to on Judgment Day. Ponsonby might just be another. So might Rio de Janiero....

Pompeii was no Holy monastery as well....(”thou touchest the mountains and they smoke”)


32 posted on 12/15/2008 5:39:49 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6

Pompeii was built next to a volcano that had catastrophically erupted many times before (including in prehistoric times, killing a lot of people.)


33 posted on 12/15/2008 5:49:36 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: SunkenCiv

Catastrophic!


34 posted on 12/15/2008 6:22:23 AM PST by Fractal Trader
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To: DieHard the Hunter
Ponsonby’s buildings are mostly constructed out of old timber. Given the age of the buildings, I’d speculate much of that timber would be kauri — a hardwood impregnated with natural resin. Burns well.

Some background for those who don't know the story: kauri is probably the best structural lumber in the world, but the huge trees are so slow-growing that farming it has been impossible. Now that the remaining kauri is ultra-protected, the lumber in Ponsonby would have been originally harvested in the 19th century, when the whole city of San Francisco was built out of it.

35 posted on 12/15/2008 6:28:08 AM PST by BlazingArizona
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To: feedback doctor
A meteor not breaking the sound barrier? Wow that's pretty slow. Something going that slow is not going to glow or burn. She contradicts herself.

Meteors slow down drastically when they hit the atmosphere. Because they contact the atmosphere at very high speed, they get frictionally heated immediately, then rapidly slow down enough to be seen moving slowly, and still glowing.

36 posted on 12/15/2008 6:31:53 AM PST by BlazingArizona
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To: BlazingArizona

> Some background for those who don’t know the story: kauri is probably the best structural lumber in the world

Very true! Thanks for that!

Another marvelous thing about Kauri is that it is nearly impervious to water and bugs and it never rots.

Here in New Zealand, from time-to-time, they dig up fallen kauri trees out of the swamps. They have carbon-dated these trees and they are very old: 10,000 years and more is not uncommon. Once it has been dried, this “swamp kauri” is just like new. They make tourist items and furniture out of it. It is a beautiful wood.

Kauri also produces a “gum”, very much like amber. In West Auckland (where I live) during the early part of the 20th Century there was quite an industry digging up kauri gum for export. It is of a very hi quality, and was used for making the finest shellac and violin rosin. The nicest pieces were (and still are) made into jewelry.


37 posted on 12/15/2008 6:36:15 AM PST by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: DieHard the Hunter
Any relation to this Ponsonby?

Monument to Sir William Ponsonby, d1815, St Paul's Cathedral Crypt, London


38 posted on 12/15/2008 7:01:51 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: Islander7

Thanks for the post Islander7. I live in the U.P. and found the articles interesting. While bird hunting two years ago I found what appears to be a small meteor impact sight (fresh). I hope to locate the spot in the spring and now have a good GPS to mark such stuff. Have another spot to investigate near my deer blind.


39 posted on 12/15/2008 7:12:16 AM PST by mcshot (Zero man! Fill out your own employment application for US.)
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To: BenLurkin

> Monument to Sir William Ponsonby, d1815, St Paul’s Cathedral Crypt, London

An excellent question: he is one of four different Ponsonby’s that may have given their name to the township.

Much of Auckland is named after Victorian heroes: we have a “Wellesley St” for example (Duke of Wellington), as well as “Victoria” and “Albert” streets (fittingly, they intersect!) and a few others.


40 posted on 12/15/2008 7:13:19 AM PST by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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