Seismic and Acoustic Waves from a Meteor

Abstract

On 1 April 1965, at 05:48 U.T., a meteor struck the earth in the Banff-Penticton area of British Columbia, Canada. The meteor was sighted and recorded by seismic and infrasonic equipment. The U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey analyzed Canadian and United States seismograms from the immediate vicinity. Sufficient acoustic, surface, and body-wave seismic signals were recorded to outline an epicentral area of impact. This assisted the Canadian Government in carrying out an aerial photographic survey and on-site inspection tour. This represents the most geophysical data available on this unique event, and perhaps the best documented within recent historical times.

Historical Detection of Atmospheric Impacts by Large Bolides Using Acoustic‐Gravity Wavesa

“…The associated yields were determined using a semiempirical method connected with the period at maximum amplitude of the arriving signals for each of the ten U.S. Air Force events given in Table 3 (a self‐consistent global scale data set) and using other independently derived yields for some of the events. For example, in the case of the Revelstoke Meteorite, both atmospheric and seismic signals were reliably recorded [1] as noted earlier. An equation similar to was developed earlier by E. M. Shoemaker [36] using a somewhat similar data set, but with a different yield‐period scaling law.…”

“…Also, in Table 6A, E s = for Revelstoke was about 69 kt. Bayer and Jordan [1] located its ground impact using infrasonic and seismic waves from multiple stations in the U.S. and Canada.…”

Interaction of Large Bodies with the Earth's Atmosphere

“…In addition, although the data have not been located by AFTAC, through contacts with Goerke (private communication 1972) and with Whipple (private communication 1975), it was made clear that airwaves from the August 10, 1972 event referred to earlier have also been recorded. Interestingly, however, two ground based arrays affiliated with NOAA failed to detect this major event, probably due to local refraction effects (private communication with A. J. Bedard 1977).…”

“…J. Bedard 1977). c. Recordings of the airwaves from the Revelstoke meteorite taken in conjunction with seismic observations at multiple stations as part of Project Vela Uniform (Bayer and Jordan 1967;private communication with J. N. Jordan 1977). Although in general the air-coupled Rayleigh waves generated by large meteoroids have not been considered here, data from a recent well documented event of this type is given in Nagasawa (1978).…”

Meteor-Generated Infrasound

“…In recent years, several experimenters have reported groundbased measurements of infrasonic pressure signals from bright meteors [Goerke, 1966;Bayer and Jordan, 1967;Woodward and Goerke, 1967;Shoemaker and Lowery, 1967; R. Johnson and C. Wilson, personal communication, 1969;Millman, 1970; (Jpik, 1970]. Such observations are also discussed briefly in the work of Georges and Young [1972].…”