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Post Info TOPIC: Selma meteorite


L

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RE: Selma meteorite
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Although not found at the time, the date of fall is considered by Mr. Coleman as July 20, 1898, at about 9 o'clock in the evening. This is on the authority of various witnesses of "a great light passing from east to west, leaving behind it a trail of fire 10 or 12 feet long, and accompanied by a rumbling noise." One of the persons was so sure of the place of fall that a search was instituted for it at the time. There is, of course, no possibility of establishing abso utely the identity of the stone so recently found and the one seen to fall, but the close proximity of the localities makes it possible.
Source

Latitude 32 25' N., longitude 87 1' W.



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Title: The Selma, Alabama, Chondrite
Authors: BRIAN MASON AND H. B. WIIK

The Selma, Alabama, chondrite was found by J. W. Coleman about 2 miles north-northwest of Selma, in Dallas County, in March, 1906. It was a single stone weighing 140.6 kg. (310 lbs.), and at that time was one of the largest stone meteorites known, although it has since been eclipsed by such meteorites as Paragould (820 lbs.) and Norton County (2360 lbs.). The find was first mentioned in the literature by Merrill (1906), who later (1907, 1916) gave a detailed description of its mineralogical and chemical composition. The stone was purchased by the American Museum of Natural History, and Hovey, the Curator of Geology at that time, described it in the Museum's Journal (1907).
From the descriptions it appears that the stone was unearthed during the digging of a trench and was rolled to one side and lay exposed for some time before it was recognised as a meteorite. The finder suggested that it fell on July 20, 1898, when a brilliant meteor was seen in that part of the country. Hovey believed that this was probable, but our examination of the interior of the stone shows that it is oxidised throughout. The degree of alteration seems too great for a compact stone that had fallen less than eight years previously, and it probably fell prior to white settlement.

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L

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In 1906 a 310 pound pyrimidal-shaped stone was found by Mr. John Coleman, in a hayfield in Dallas County, Alabama about 2 miles N. of Selma near the Summerfield road. It is possible this meteorite fell on on July 20, 1898, around 9:00, but this cannot be verified. It was a weathered mass and has been classified as an H4.
Source

The Selma meteorite from 1906 was found by a man named J. W. Coleman, who believed that the piece he found was responsible for a fireball seen from the sky in 1898.
Source



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