Latvian experts investigate large crater
Tue Oct 27 00:37:03 EST 2009
Mon Oct 26 13:37:03 UTC 2009
RIGA, Oct 26 AP - Scientists were investigating on Monday whether a large crater found in a meadow in northern Latvia had been created by a meteorite. One expert said it was likely a hoax.
Experts in the Baltic country rushed to the site after reports that a metorite-like object had crashed late on Sunday in the Mazsalaca region near the Estonian border.
Uldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre, said his first impression after observing the site late on Sunday was that the nine-metre wide and three-metre deep crater had been caused by a meteorite. He said there was smoke coming out of the hole when he arrived.
However, Dainis Ozols, a nature conservationist who examined the hole in daylight on Monday, said it appeared to be a hoax. Ozols said he believes someone dug the hole and tried to make it look like a meteorite crater by burning some pyrotechnic compound at the bottom. He added he would analyse some samples taken from the site.
When asked about Ozols' theory, Nulle refused to comment, saying he needed more time to make tests at the site.
Inga Vetere of the Fire and Rescue Service said they received a call about the alleged meteorite on Sunday evening from an eyewitness. She said a military unit was dispatched to the site and found that radiation levels were normal. There were no injures.
Experts outside Latvia said it would be unusual for such a large meteorite to hit the Earth. The planet is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, but most burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the surface.
In 2007, a meteorite crashed near Lake Titicaca in Peru, causing a crater about 12 metres wide and five metres deep.
Asta Pellinen-Wannberg, a meteorite expert at the Swedish Institute of Space Research, said she didn't know the details of the Latvian incident, but that a rock would have to be at least one metre in diameter to create a hole that size.
Henning Haack, a lecturer at Copenhagen University's Geological Museum said more information was needed to confirm that the crater was indeed caused by a meteorite.
"With all these kind of reports we get there always is a pretty large margin of error," he said.
