Small meteor makes big noise across Western Washington

By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times staff reporter

KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES University of Washington astronomy lecturer Toby Smith yesterday displays a meteorite found in Arizona that come from a meteoroid about the size of a small house.

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Linda Schumpert, who was driving along a lonely, tree-lined road near Monroe, believed she was being beamed up by space aliens.

Seattle meteorologist Cliff Mass leapt out of bed and raced to his computer to check the University of Washington's seismic monitors, even though it didn't feel quite like an earthquake.

When the skies flashed daylight-bright at 2:40 a.m., followed by reverberations so fierce they shook walls and rattled windows, people across Western Washington found it easy to imagine all sorts of possibilities — most of them frightening.

But by the time the morning commute started yesterday, the rational explanation was widely known: A meteor the size of a computer monitor plowed into the Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the region, traveling at a speed approaching 50,000 mph and creating a fireball that eclipsed the full moon before exploding into bits.

Readers report We heard reports from several readers about the mysterious booms and flashes of light early this morning over Puget Sound: "At first, I thought I was being beamed up, but no gauges on my car changed, so I knew I wasn't being 'taken'" — Linda Schumpert · Read more reader reports

About 80 of the UW's seismic stations recorded the event, which registered magnitude 1.6 on the earthquake scale — though the measure doesn't make much sense when applied to vibrations that come out of the sky, UW seismologist Steve Malone said with a laugh.

Nevertheless, Malone was able to use the instrument readings to pinpoint the site of the explosion: About six miles northeast of the town of Snohomish and 26 miles above ground.

"That's pretty far up there," Malone said. "And it looks like it entered the atmosphere at a fairly steep angle."

If any pieces survived the punishing transit, they would be scattered across the landscape between Snohomish and Everett. But unless chunks wound up in somebody's yard — or on top of their car, as happened to a woman in rural New York several years ago — it's unlikely they will ever be found, said UW astronomy lecturer Toby Smith.

"If you recover a meteorite, it's a rare thing," said Smith, a meteorite expert. Only six have ever been found in the state of Washington, and none of those was from a meteor that anyone witnessed falling. "They had probably been lying around hundreds, if not thousands, of years," Smith said.

Though 20,000 tons of space rock rain to Earth each year, most is in the form of dust-sized grains that can create shooting stars but almost always burn up before reaching the surface. It's very unusual to have a large piece fall near an urban area, Smith said.

Video of the flash Meteor images taken from cameras situated at Harborview Medical Center. · Camera 1 · Camera 2 · Camera 3 · Camera 4 Requires RealPlayer

Witnesses reported seeing the one-to-two-second burst of light from as far east as Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, as far south as Tacoma and well into British Columbia.

Most described the sound as a succession of booms, followed by a long rumble.

At least one prankster also had his say, leading to some early-morning confusion. A man calling himself Bradley Hammermaster called a KIRO radio talk show at 3:15 a.m. Claiming to be a UW astronomer, he said a chunk the size of a car had hit near Chehalis. The Associated Press distributed the report before realizing it was a hoax.

Seattle police estimate up to 150 people called 911 to report the event.

Schumpert, who was driving to work, considered dialing the emergency line after she realized she wasn't being teleported by the blue-white light, which was so intense it illuminated rocks on the side of the road.

But she wasn't sure how to describe the phenomenon to police.

"I didn't know what the heck was going on," she said. "It was so creepy."

Campbell was drinking a glass of water, gazing out his kitchen window at the full moon.

"That's when the sky lit up," he said. He dropped his water into the sink and yanked the blinds open. As the initial flash faded, he saw the brilliant streak heading southeast.

"It was bluish green, then it went to red, then a total fireball," he said. "It was absolutely stunning."

After his thought of nuclear war, he considered the possibility of a plane crash.

Then he recalled his college science classes and decided it must have been a meteor.

"In 45 years, I've seen a lot of things in the sky," he said, "but nothing like this."

A spokeswoman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command said the organization, which tracks missiles, rockets and hostile aircraft headed for the United States, was aware of the meteor but quickly determined it wasn't a threat.

A check of all orbiting satellites and pieces of space junk showed that none had re-entered the atmosphere, said Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

"This was not a piece of space debris," he said. "This happens to be a relatively small chunk of rock that chose that particular time to run into the Earth."

Security cameras at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle recorded the brilliant light flashing across the building facades and parking areas, but didn't show the meteor's trajectory through the sky. If any other cameras across the region captured that, it may be possible to retrace the object's path and learn more about it, said Wayne Edwards, a doctoral student at the University of Western Ontario who specializes in meteors.

Using video from a police car and military satellite data, Edwards and his colleagues were able to piece together details about a meteor that broke up over Chicago a year ago, illuminating four states and raining 65 pounds of fragments across the heavily populated area.

	KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES University of Washington astronomy lecturer Toby Smith holds meteorites unrelated to the cosmic light show that occurred early yesterday. "If you recover a meteorite," he said, "it's a rare thing."

That meteor, Edwards estimated, was the size of a small car when it entered the atmosphere.

Meteors are formed when bits break off asteroids, Smith explained. They can be made of rock or iron minerals.

The bright glow is created as the rock hurtles through the atmosphere, vaporizing as it goes and exciting air molecules, which give off light. The booms and rumbles are from shock waves or sonic booms generated as the meteor slows and is eventually ripped apart by atmospheric friction.

Campbell, who marvels at the lucky timing of his early-morning drink of water, says the experience will stay with him the rest of his life.

"I would pay to see that again," he said. "To sit there and watch that."

Seattle Times staff reporter Michael Ko contributed to this report. Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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