Alan Wilson, chief electrician for Skeena Forest
Products at Terrace, says he saw a huge, flaming meteor hit a mountainside 10
miles north of Lytton just before midnight Thursday.
Wilson estimated the meteor to be “at
least 20 feet in diameter.”
“It had quite a tail of flame behind
it and was still going (the flame) when it hit,” he said Friday. “The point of
interest is that it did land and looked like a huge one.”
Dr. W. H. Mathews, head of the
University of B.C. geology department, said if the meteor landed intact it
would be an uncommon occurrence. Usually meteors split up before they hit the
ground, he said. Sometimes there are pieces or just dust.
Some have been located almost
complete on the Prairies and in Europe, Dr. Mathews said. But, even if a
meteor did fall to earth intact, finding it would be much more difficult in
B.C.’s heavily forested areas, he said.
There was a search at Revelstoke four
or five years ago but Mathews believes only fragments were located.
“You rarely see them touch ground,”
he said. “Usually they cross the sky and disappear over the horizon.”
HOMEPAGE