Fireballs
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Meteor fireball over Portugal on March 16

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© Shutterstock/Triff
This extraordinary bolide was spotted from Spain on March 16, at 2:54 local time (equivalent to 1:54 universal time). It was brighter than the full Moon. The event was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from an asteroid that hit the atmosphere at about 61,000 km/h. The fireball overflew Portugal. It began at an altitude of about 91 km over Foros de Vale Figueira (west of the region of Évora), moved northeast, and ended at a height of around 19 km over Cano (south of region of Alentejo).

The preliminary analysis of this event shows that the rock was not fully destroyed: a part of the meteoroid survived and reached the ground as a meteorite.

This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at Huelva, La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), and Sevilla. The event has been analyzed by the team headed by Dr. Jose M. Madiedo (principal investigator of the SMART project), from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).


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Impressive meteor fireball streaks through Otago sky in New Zealand on March13

The fireball was captured entering the atmosphere above South Canterbury and North Otago.
© Allsky7, Richard Querel (NIWA), James ScottThe fireball was captured entering the atmosphere above South Canterbury and North Otago.
An impressive meteorite was caught on camera as it blazed over Canterbury and Otago earlier this week.

A number of Fireballs Aotearoa's monitoring cameras managed to catch a glimpse of the blazing ball of rock, which made itself known to skygazers around 9pm on Wednesday night.

The fireball was reported from Te Anau to Christchurch, with several lucky enough to witness it from their spa pools.

A report written by University of Otago's James Scott, detailed how the event played out.


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Meteor fireball explodes over Mount Sakurajima in Japan on March 11

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© Shutterstock/Triff


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Meteor fireball crosses the sky of 4 Brazilian states on March 11

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Clima ao Vivo and Bramon recorded images of the meteor that crossed the sky of the South and SP region, on Monday night (11).


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Meteor fireball over Germany and nearby countries on March 8

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© Rene Z.
We received 266 reports about a fireball seen over Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, England, Friesland, Gelderland, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Groningen, Hessen, Limburg, Niederösterreich, Niedersachsen, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Nordrhein-Westfalen and North Rhine-Westph on Friday, March 8th 2024 around 21:47 UT.

For this event, we received 3 videos and 4 photos.


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Meteor fireball explodes NW of Puerto Rico on March 5

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© Shutterstock/Triff
This event was recorded on March 5, 2024 at 3:40am LT (7:40 UTC) facing NW from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.


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Green meteor fireball lights up Thailand's skies on March 4

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A mysterious green fireball illuminated the skies last night across various regions in Thailand, prompting widespread online discussion and speculations about its origin.

At approximately 9pm, numerous citizens reported sightings of a large, bright green light streaking through the sky, resembling a meteor or a falling star.

The Thai Astronomical Society, a key authority in the field, acknowledged the event on its social media page.

"Over the past hour, many of our followers have reported seeing a large, bright green fireball visible across several provinces in the central region. The Thai Astronomical Society is currently verifying the facts and will provide updates periodically."


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Meteor fireball over Arizona and Colorado on March 4

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© Shutterstock/Triff
We received 15 reports about a fireball seen over Arizona and Colorado on Monday, March 4th 2024 around 04:59 UT.

For this event, we received one video.


Attention

Large ingenous events, cosmic impacts and crises in the history of life

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© Randall Carlson Newsletter - March 2024
Last month, in the February 2024 issue of the Kosmographia Newsletter I reported on new research correlating a series of large-scale igneous events which produced the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and the Siberian Traps with mass extinction episodes. On February 8 another paper was published in the journal Global and Planetary Change which further supports correlations between mass extinction episodes with gigantic volcanic eruptions and catastrophic cosmic impacts. The lead author of the paper is Michael Rampino, who has for decades been in the forefront of researching catastrophic events in Earth history. I have been following his work since the early 1980s and hold him in high regard as a scientist who is willing to think outside established paradigms of Earth history. The abstract to the paper begins:

"We find that Large Igneous Province (LIP) volcanism, mostly continental flood basalts (CFBs), along with the largest extraterrestrial impacts show significant correlations with mass-extinction events in the Phanerozoic geologic record. The ages of the 6 major marine mass extinctions (≥ 40% extinction of genera) of the last 541 MY ̶ the end-Ordovician (~444 Ma), late Devonian (~ 372 Ma), end-Guadalupian (~259 Ma), end-Permian (~ 252 Ma), end-Triassic (~201 Ma), and end-Cretaceous (66 Ma) extinctions are significantly correlated with high-quality U — Pb zircon and 40Ar/39Ar ages of 6 continental flood basalts (CFBs) ̶ the Cape St. Mary's, Viluy, Emeishan, Siberian, CAMP, and the Deccan Basalts.

U — Pb zircon dating (Uranium-lead) is a widely used method for dating metamorphic rocks typically employing a thermal ionization mass spectrometer. Zircon is used because it includes uranium and thorium atoms in its crystalline structure when forming but rejects lead, so any lead found in a zircon crystal is radiogenic, meaning it results from radioactive decay. Argon dating can measure Argon isotopes from a single mineral grain. The ratio of Argon 40 to Argon 39 yields the age of the sample.

The extinctions listed above are considered to be major events in the history of life on Earth. A number of less severe extinctions have taken place, although these events are somewhat more difficult to discern in the geologic/palaeontologic record. Nevertheless, a correlation can be discerned between these extinctions and both volcanic eruptions and cosmic impact.

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Meteor fireball over Alabama and other states on March 3

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© Shutterstock/Triff
We received 61 reports about a fireball seen over AL, AR, GA, KS, KY, Mississippi, MS, NC, SC and TN on Sunday, March 3rd 2024 around 01:21 UT.

For this event, we received 5 videos.