Skip to comments.
Did Comet Trigger The Great Chicago Fire?
Discovery ^
| 3-6-2004
| Irene Mona Klotz
Posted on 03/06/2004 2:15:32 PM PST by blam
Did a Comet Trigger The Great Chicago Fire?
By Irene Mona Klotz, Discovery News
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871
March 5, 2004 Perhaps it was not Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern that sparked the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed the downtown area and claimed 300 lives.
New research lends credence to an alternative explanation: The fire, along with less-publicized and even more deadly blazes the same night in upstate Wisconsin and Michigan, was the result of a comet fragment crashing into Earth's atmosphere.
The comet theory has been around and most often discarded since at least 1883, but Robert Wood, a retired McDonnell Douglas physicist, said never before has the orbital parameters of the rogue comet been taken into consideration.
The likely suspect, in Wood's eyes, is a fragment from Biela's Comet, which had been circling the sun every six years and nine months before a close encounter with Jupiter caused it to break into two large fragments in 1845. During its next passage, astronomers noted a 1.5-million mile, 15-day gap between the two pieces.
Wood said his analysis of the fragments' positions during subsequent orbits shows that Jupiter's gravity again affected their speed and trajectory, sending the smaller fragment on a path toward Earth that ended in October 1871. He presented his findings at a conference last week titled "Planetary Defense: Protecting Earth from Asteroids," held in Garden Grove, Calif.
Wood cited eyewitness reports of spontaneous ignitions, lack of smoke and "fire balloons" falling from the sky to bolster his theory. If the fire had been caused by comet debris, which is believed to have consisted of small pieces of frozen methane, acetylene or other highly combustible chemicals, it also would explain the cause of the fires blazing north of Chicago, which wiped out 2,000 people and burned 4 million acres of farm and prairie lands.
The deceased included many who showed no signs of being burned, Wood said. "This would be consistent with either the absence of oxygen or the presence of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide above lethal levels," a rare but not unprecedented situation in large forest fires.
In all, over a 24-hour period, an area of land the size of Connecticut was burned. Wood speculates the main body of the comet crashed into Lake Michigan, with peripheral fragments causing the fires in Chicago, Wisconsin and Michigan.
NASA is among a handful of agencies and organizations working on cataloging potentially threatening near-Earth asteroids and comets. What would be done about any threatening asteroids, however, remains the domain of science fiction.
"What's important about these findings," Wood said, "is that they show you people can actually get killed from something from out of space."
TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Illinois; US: Michigan; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: 18711008; bielascomet; carbondioxide; carbonmonoxide; catastrophism; chicago; chicagofire; comet; fire; godsgravesglyphs; great; holland; illinois; manistee; michigan; peshtigo; peshtigofire; saugatuck; trigger; us; wisconsin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-51 next last
1
posted on
03/06/2004 2:15:33 PM PST
by
blam
To: blam
Bush knew!
2
posted on
03/06/2004 2:16:50 PM PST
by
billorites
(freepo ergo sum)
To: farmfriend
3
posted on
03/06/2004 2:17:24 PM PST
by
blam
To: blam
My theory all along. (Well a comet or Meteor) I am glad the scientic community is finally coming round to my way of thinking. If they had only done so sooner :)
Seriously, I did see a show about this about 8 years ago that made a whole lot of sense.
4
posted on
03/06/2004 2:18:20 PM PST
by
Conan the Librarian
(I am a Librarian. I don't know anything....I just know where to look it up.)
To: blam
No, but I think Donner and Blitzen were in on it.
5
posted on
03/06/2004 2:23:25 PM PST
by
Pete'sWife
(Dirt is for racing... asphalt is for getting there.)
To: billorites
At the same time there was also a fire in Saugatuk Michigan- directly east of Chicago- that burnt more square miles than the Chicago fire but less loss in lives and property. The author may not have been aware of the Saugatuk fire.
To: billorites
Reparations for the descendants of Mrs. O'Leary's cow!
No justice, no peace!!!
To: expat_panama
As schoolkids in Wisconsin, we always learn about the Peshtigo fire:
Oct. 8 marks the anniversary of the Peshtigo Fire.
The 1871 fire killed more than 1,300 people. History tells us that it was the most devastating fire in American history.
The blaze, which started in Marinette County, scorched 1.2 million acres, even crossing the waters of Green Bay to Door and Kewaunee counties.
It was also on that exact date in 1871 that Chicago was struck by fire. While not as destructive as the Peshtigo fire, 300 lives were lost.
8
posted on
03/06/2004 2:28:15 PM PST
by
July 4th
(George W. Bush, Avenger of the Bones)
This is the type of writer who will do the Clinton administration (in)justice. Gag me...
To: July 4th
I read a book on the Peshtigo fire and it was said that very strong,dry winds were the reason the fire spread so quickly.
10
posted on
03/06/2004 2:30:40 PM PST
by
Mears
To: blam; Conan the Librarian
Growing up in the city of Chicago at a time when there were still people around who
remembered the Great Fire of 1871, obviously I heard a lot about it.
It had been a very dry summer and autumn--both in Chicago and up near Peshtigo, where the Wisconsin fire started. Dry wood houses and dry forests were tinderboxes ready to burst into flames. That two major fires occurred close in time in the same dry region should not be considered too unusual. This is not to rule out the comet theory, but to say that the two fires could have easily been caused by more common means.
11
posted on
03/06/2004 2:33:12 PM PST
by
Charles Henrickson
(Born in Chicago 51 years ago tomorrow.)
To: blam
>The fire, along with less-publicized and
even more deadly blazes the same night in upstate Wisconsin and Michigan
|
If Wisconsin is in the story, then we all know who gets the blame... |
To: blam
If the fire had been caused by comet debris, which is believed to have consisted of small pieces of frozen methane, acetylene or other highly combustible chemicals, it also would explain the cause of the fires blazing north of Chicago, which wiped out 2,000 people and burned 4 million acres of farm and prairie lands. Wow, I never even heard of this. First we discover that an asteroid didn't wipe out the dinosaurs after all. Now we learn the Chicago fire can't be blamed on Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
13
posted on
03/06/2004 2:33:52 PM PST
by
DentsRun
To: blam
Shoot. The end of a great camping song.
14
posted on
03/06/2004 2:38:01 PM PST
by
annyokie
(There are two sides to every argument, but I'm too busy to listen to yours.)
To: blam; A.J.Armitage; abner; adam_az; AdmSmith; Alas Babylon!; ameribbean expat; Androcles; ...
Non indexed ping.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.
15
posted on
03/06/2004 3:11:47 PM PST
by
farmfriend
( Isaiah 55:10,11)
To: blam
This and the Arizona Sunset Crater article you posted earlier should give the myth chasers mor ammunition. We should look for the base causes instead of dismissing old stories as "childish". Interesting. Next we can solve who Hanuman was, now that we have other ideas about Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
16
posted on
03/06/2004 4:47:37 PM PST
by
JimSEA
( "More Bush, Less Taxes.")
To: blam
Fire cause determined - Wood
17
posted on
03/06/2004 5:04:08 PM PST
by
pa_dweller
(What's the opposite of a safe haven?)
To: JimSEA
"Next we can solve who Hanuman was, now that we have other ideas about Mrs. O'Leary's cow." The Life Of Hanuman
18
posted on
03/06/2004 5:18:54 PM PST
by
blam
To: blam
Ignatius Donelly made a fairly compelling case for this over a hundred years ago.
To: blam
20
posted on
03/06/2004 5:53:41 PM PST
by
ItsOurTimeNow
("By all that we hold dear on this Earth I bid you stand, men of the West!")
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-51 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson