2009-10-26

BUSTED! Latvian Meteorite Crater A Fake

It didn't take long to confirm that a recent report from Latvia of a meteorite impact crater was fake. Local eyewitness reports of fireballs in the sky came in aroung 5pm yesterday, quickly followed by blog posts of apparent photographic evidence of the crater.

Now, call me cynical, but when I saw this particular photograph my immediate reaction was laughter.



So, what do you see here then?
Well, I see a nicely dug hole, probably with a JCB and shovels, and a little off-center area with the remains of a campfire in it. It looks very much like what someone with limited knowledge of impact craters would create if they were asked to.

Several clues jump out right off the bat. No ejecta. Anything that created a hole this big in one thump would have thrown the contents outwards for several metres. Shovel marks. Yes, there were shovel marks found aroung the rim. That's what I call a "Doh!" moment. The fire remnants. It's a common misconception that meteorite craters are formed by flaming lumps of rock, when in actuality they are invariably cold by the time they reach the ground.

Personally, I think they should have combined resources with the Balloon Boy family and given us all a grand scale hoax to chuckle over.

The video is the killer for me.


Grab the marshmallows and listen to those tree branches crack!

Happy Faking Spacers!

SpaceHead
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2 comments:

MsWild said...

It looks more like the indentation left from Anna Nicole's left boob than a meteorite.

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