Experience the Impact!
Rachel Lindenberg spoke at the rim of the "Meteor Crater" near Flagstaff, Arizona. Her speech, despite having known absolutely nothing about meteors was surprisingly cogent and put-together. Science has proven the following transcribed speech to be correct and accurate. Currently Rachel is being considered for the Nobel Prize in Meteoric Impact. As you can see from the photo of her in deep thought about the meteor, this is serious stuff...
Rachel quipps, "Approximately 50,000 years ago, on a continuous plain extending for miles in the high desert plateau of Northern Arizona, out of the northeastern sky, a pinpoint of light grew rapidly into a brilliant fireball."
She went on to add, "This body was probably broken off from an asteroid during an ancient collision in the main asteroid belt (between the planets, Mars and Jupiter) some half billion years ago. Hurtling about 40,000 miles per hour, it was on a rendezvous course with earth. In seconds, it passed through the earth's atmosphere with little loss of velocity or mass. In a blinding flash, a huge iron-nickel meteorite or dense cluster of meteorites, estimated to have been about 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand tons, struck the rocky plain with an explosive force greater than twenty million tons of TNT."
Ms. Lindenberg furthered that thought when she said, "Traveling at supersonic speed, this impact generated immensely powerful shock waves in the meteorite, the rock and the surrounding atmosphere. In the air, shock waves swept across the level plain devastating all in the meteor's path for a radius of several miles. In the ground, as the meteorite penetrated the rocky plain, pressures rose to over twenty million pounds per square inch, and both iron and rock experienced limited vaporization and extensive melting."
Ms. Lindenberg also made mention that, "Beyond the affected region, an enormous volume of rock underwent complete fragmentation and ejaculation. The result of these violent conditions was the excavation of a giant bowl shaped cavity. In less than a few seconds, a crater was carved into this once flat rocky plain. During its formation, over 175 million tons of limestone and sandstone were abruptly thrown out to form a continuous blanket of debris surrounding the crater for a distance of over a mile."
Ms. Lindenberg summarized that, "As a result of the impact, the crater floor was 700 feet deep; it is now approximately 550. The crater is over 4,000 feet across and 2.4 miles in circumference.There is evidence of the crater being referenced by Native Americans in the area; however a man named Franklin, who served as a scout for General Custer, wrote the first report of the crater in 1871. For years the crater was referred to as Franklin's Hole. The geological and planetary records are clear: collisions, ranging in size from microscopic to gigantic events, have occurred since the beginning of the solar system, and will continue to occur. Indeed, the very course of life on earth has been affected by this endless bombardment."
With passion and gusto, she exclaimed as she ran from the crater, "No less can be expected in the future! hahahahhaha"
On a side note, Ms. Lindenberg has also written an operatic masterpiece regarding the deep and passionate impact of the crater... and the possibility of a tragic, yet once in a millenia, opportunity to meet one's demise as a victim of manslaughter by shooting star.
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