West Kentucky Earthquake...Minor

Local Sheriff | 4/16/2004 | Beau Dodson

[Cheetah1]

Reports of houses shaking in several counties...also a loud explosion being heard.

Anyone on here in that area.

Anyway have any further information.

Checking the earthquake sites but nothing yet.

This happened about 20 minutes ago.

Further info appreciated...

[John H K]

Eh, given that the skies are clear over Kentucky as I see on satellite, if it was a fireball bolide exploding, someone would have certainly seen it.

That was your coolest possibility, if it was a heard meteor explosion you almost certainly would have had fragments falling to earth :-)

[Squantos]

You and Fred getting ready for Knob Creek early ?

Stay safe !

[Cheetah1]

We have a meteor that has hit...apperently...

Lots of people are out looking for the impact site...

Reports of a large fireball...then an explosion.

So that is the scoop...

Hit is Ballard County, Kentucky

[xzins]

Some of us discussed this the other day: it's the snake handlers and moonshiners has got together for a square dance.

[BigSkyFreeper]

It's just a FORD backfiring.

[Momaw Nadon]

[John H K]

Holy crap,

Man, I should get points for pointing out that possibility. :-)

Given you had sounds heard, it's almost certain something made it to the ground

Most likely, you have an explosion at altitude, and then fragments falling, rather than an integral big meteor hitting and making a crater (though that is possible.)

One thing to keep in mind is that with fireballs there's an overwhelming optical illusion effect; one can be 50 miles away and people will INSIST it must have hit just over the next hill; they always look closer than they are.

[TruBluKentuckian]

Wow... cool as hell...

Hope it didn't hit that restaurant in Bandana with the all you can eat froglegs.

[Vigilantcitizen]

There was a young pilot that went subsonic over Georgia a couple of years ago. Thousands statewide heard the sonic boom, and it made the news.

The pilot got in big trouble.

[Vigilantcitizen]

Cool. Keep us updated.

Maybe you can get the moderator to change the title.

[rwfromkansas]

Oh it will....not an if, but when.

It may be 200 years from now, but it will sometime and will impact a lot of folks when it does.

[kenth]

Were at the southern end of the Appalachians (N. GA). On clear days you can count on having jets blast just over the house. Last week we had a veritable air show - earlier in the morning two F-14s came by, wings forward, low and slow. Later two sets of F-16s came by, couldn't have been more than a few hundred feet up. Some days a guy in his private acrobatic plane practices over our valley. It is pretty cool here at times.



We heard (more than felt) the earthquake that hit northern AL last year. It scared the crap out of me. I had fallen asleep on the couch and when it hit I thought I woke up to the mother of all thunderstorms.

[ClearBlueSky]

Something to note- Elsewhere on FR is a thread about a huge comet approaching the sun tomorrow. And these things usually break up as they near the sun. Wonder if this has something to do with that?

[John H K]

Well, if there was an actual high-speed hit of an entire meteorite it would have registered seismically, so I doubt that happened (though they do have filters to try to keep mine and road blasting and such out of the maps at USGS, and this wouldn't have been a "typical" earthquake signature.)

Once one explodes at altitude, the fragments fall at low speed, and are not visible as they fall. They should just be lying on the ground.

And the other thing is the fragments will be room temperature; they cool quickly...they don't start fires or anything, and won't be glowing.

[John H K]

Nah. The Sun, and that Comet, are an awful long way from Earth.

Large fireballs are actually fairly common. Most are over the ocean and are never noticed, but our nuclear-explosion monitoring satellites regularly pick them up.

[TruBluKentuckian]

But but but... they have flesh eating blobs inside of them...

I know, cuz I saw it in a movie once.

[Momaw Nadon]

[Crazieman]

They will list unknown sonics if enough replies for a given time are reported.

Blah

[Crazieman]

They will list unknown sonics if enough replies for a given time are reported.

Blah

[HoHoeHeaux]

I am in Paducah....didn't feel a thing. Didn't hear it either! Will watch this thread for updates tho.

Is your name Phillip? If so...we graduated together (o: