238 



NATURE 



\yuly 19, 1877 



THE STALLDALEN METEORITE^ 



I N the Scandinavian North, so extraordinarily rich in mines and 

 -^ quarries, there have been found during the last few years a 

 number of new minerals, by which many a mine and even many 

 an mconsidetable opening scarce known in its own patish has 

 become world-famous in mineralogical literature. Several of 

 these finds are of great interest in a systematic aspect — for in- 

 stance, the discovery of barytitt; a new, exceedingly basic variety 

 of felspar containing baryta ; of ganomalite, the first natural 

 silicate of lead which has been discovered ; of ekdennite, a new 

 mineral conlaining antimonic acid, from the mines of Langban ; 

 and of /lomilile, a new, beautifully crystallised silicate of boron, 

 containing water, fron\ Brevig. Others again give us a highly 

 unexpected insight into the nature of the chemical forces which 

 are in activity in the interior of the earth — for instance, the Werm- 

 land minerals, manguiiosilc, or protoxide of manganese, and 

 pyrokroiie, or hydrated protoxide of manganese, which afford 

 evidence of a powerful reducing action. The latter mineral has 

 during last year been found at a new locality — the mines of 

 Nordmark. 



However important these newly-discovered minerals may be, 

 they do not awaken so keen an interest as the stones which from 

 time to time fall from the heavens, and afford us specimens of 

 the matter to be found in spaces so remote that rays of light 

 require thousands of years to reach them. A new and highly 

 instructive contribution to our knowledge of meteorites has been 

 obtained in Sweden through the fall of the meteorite, which 

 took place at Stalldalen, near Nya Kopparberg, in Orebro 

 Ian, on June 28, 1876, at 1 1 '50 a.m., from a fireball which was 

 visible over a large part of middle Sweden. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Stockhol.ii the meteor appeared as an indistinctly- 

 defined fireball, followed by a long streak of fire. The ball was 

 first visible below the zenith in the north-east ornortli-north-east, 

 and went from hence towards the horizon in the west, where it 

 generally appeared to fall in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 spectator, sometimes with, sometimes without, the throwing out 

 of sparks. In the town of Gefle the fire-red ball, followed by a 

 streak of the same colour, was seen moving from north-east to 

 south-west. At the neighbouring promontory, Hamas, it was 

 first seen of the size of a large star, speedily increasing, however, 

 leaving a long streak of fire behind it, and finally disappearing 

 without noise, falling, according to the supposition of the spec- 

 tator, behind some neighbouring buildings. 



At Malmkbping the meteor appeared to proceed from the 

 northern heavens towards the west, leaving behind it a fine white 

 streak, which was distinguishable for two minutes. At a height 

 of 25° above the horizon it disappeared without falling asunder. 

 At Linkoping the nucleus of the meteor was pear-shaped, of 

 blinding whiteness, followed by a streak of fire which was 

 strongly luminous notwithstanding the clear bright sunshine, and 

 about eight times longer than the nucleus. It was first observed 

 pretty high up in the north-east, but afterwards sank to a height 

 of 10° above the horizon in the west, where it broke up without 

 noise into a number of star-sparks. In Skara the meteor, fol- 

 lowed by a beautifully luminous streak of fire, appeared to fall 

 asunder, throwing out sparks strongly at the same time, after 

 having gone from east to west with an apparent diameter of half 

 that of the moon. In Hedemora two fire-balls were seen, one 

 close behind the other, falling from the zenith towards the west, 

 leaving behind them a light grey streak. A minute after the 

 meteor passed from the field of view, a loud explosion was heard, 

 which is also mentioned in reports from the town of Falun and 

 from Gustafs and Stora Tuna parishes. In Mora no explosion was 

 heard, but here the meleor, which left m its path a stream of fire 

 of a deep violet colour, was seen to fall asunder in the south-south- 

 east, with a strongly luminous fire rain, the fire iliops of which, 

 however, were extinguished before they reached the horizon. In 

 Karlskoga a fireball of a blinding clear reddish white lustre was 

 seen high up in the zenith. Ilence it sank towards the north- 

 north-west 10 a height of 30", and afterwards parted into three or 

 four smaller pieces, which speedily went out and resembled the 

 stars which fall from a rocket. The meteor left behind it a white 

 smoke, which in the calm air remained in the direction of the 

 fall about a minute, and afterwards dispersed. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Karlstad, the meteor was thought to fall in the north 

 east. It was compared to a falling star rocket. It was very 

 bright, with a white nucleus, having fire-red edges, and passing 



■ Abstract of an Address by Prof. NordeiiskjiilJ at tlie Anniversary of the 

 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 



when bursting asunder to a blinding white, the separate pieces 

 being clearly visible. Its apparent size was compared to that of 

 the full moon, and after its disappearance a white streak re- 

 mained lor some seconds in the sky. In Ilobiil parish in 

 Dalsland there was seen in the sky a pointed fire-ball, resem- 

 bling in form a soda-water fiask, at first pretty high in the 

 heavens, afterwards approaching the earth, dividing into two 

 parts and disappearing without any detonation after the lapse of 

 half a minute. At Lysekil the meteor appeared to fall perpen- 

 dicularly in the north-west, and spiing asunder without any 

 noise some few feet above the surface of the water. According 

 to a statement in the newspapers the meteor in question was 

 simultaneously seen at Christiania. In, Denmark and Finland 

 it was not visible. 



From a careful and critical examination of these statements, 

 and many others which have been collected, it appears that the 

 meteor in question, pos.sibly with the neighbourhood of 7 

 Cephei as radiation point, proceeded in a somewhat oblique 

 direction to the place where the stones fell on the meteor burst- 

 ing asunder. If with a point 40 kilometres south of Stalldalen 

 as a centre, a circle be described through Christiania, the west- 

 ernmost place where the phenomenon was observed, its circum- 

 ference intersects Orust in the south, the neighbourhood of 

 Stockholm in the east, nnd Gefle in the north-east, and includes 

 all the places where the meteor was visible. At Stockholm, 

 Hedemora, Karlskoga, and Lysekil, the meteor is said to have 

 been visible first in the north-east, somewhat below the zenith, 

 and if the direction is noted where it disappeared in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the horizon, this direction in general corresponds 

 very well with the direction from the place of observation to 

 the place of fall. The meteor thus went under the horizon or 

 disappeared in its neighbourhood at Stockholm to west, at 

 Gefle to south-west, at Mora to south-south-east, at Lysekil to 

 north, at Malmkoping to north-west, and so on. 



The meteor thus reached the end of its short luminous path 

 in ihe region where the fall took place. It became luminous at 

 a heiglit which cannot, after making allowauce for errors of 

 observation, he reckoned at less than 300 to 400 kilometres, but 

 was probably greater. At this height the atmosphere, notwith- 

 standing its extreme tenuity, is capable by its resistance of 

 heating red hot a body moving with cosmic speed, as of 75 

 kilometres per second, and if the composiiion of the atmosphere 

 at this height be the same as at the surface of the earth the 

 meteor will meet with sufficient oxygen to maintain a lively com- 

 bustion of the combustible matters which enter into the compo- 

 sition of the meteor. It appears to ivie that we have here an 

 explanation of the considerable height in the atmosphere at 

 which meteors first become luminous — an explanation which is 

 so much the more probable as we now not only know a number of 

 carboniferous meteorites, but also by the meteorite fall at Hessle, 

 in Upland, have distinct proof that the common meteorites may 

 be accompanied, and perhaps are generally accompanied, by an 

 easily combustible carboniferous dust. Only through such a 

 supposition can we obtain an explanation of the large size of 

 these meteors when compared with the stones which fall, as well 

 as of their strong illuminating power, which clearly shows that the 

 light arises from the glowing of solid masses, and not merely 

 from the compressed and heated gases which the meteor has 

 collected before it. 



The statements regarding the size of the Stiilldalen meteor are 

 very various. The most probable are those which give it a 

 diameter of six minutes, which, supposing the distance to be 250 

 kilometres, would give the fireball a diameter of 436 metres, or 

 nearly 1,500 feet. In comparison with this size the stones that 

 have fallen are surprisingly small, which yields a further support 

 to the supposition that the main mass of the meteor consisted of 

 substances which had already high up in the air been dissipated 

 in the form of gas or undergone combustion. In the case of the 

 Stalldalen meteor there is also the exceedingly remarkable cir- 

 cumstance tliat the fireball was not visible in the region where 

 thi path of the meteor struck the earth and where the meteor- 

 ittrs fell, although this place lay nearly in the centre of the area 

 where the meteor was visible as a luminous fireball, and although 

 the sky here too was clear and cloudless with the exception of 

 the little dark cloud which the meteor collected before it in its 

 path through the air. It was probibly this cloud which pre- 

 vented it from being seen in the region which lay in the direction 

 of the fall. Although no fireball was seen here, loud detonations 

 were heard and some light streaks of cloud were visible in the 

 zenith, from which, according to some, faint flashes of fire 



