The Pit!................Arion

Ever since scientists figured out that comets/meteors wiped out the dinosaurs, the media has been bombarding us with theories about "the next big impact". From movies like Meteor, After the Impact, Deadly Skies, to stories in series like Smallville and Stargate SG-1; the message is always the same, "It's coming, and we're doomed!"

But did you know that it's already happened, once before? Did you know that the USA almost had a Pit swallow one of its largest cities?

On 24 June 1938, a 500-ton meteor entered Earth's atmosphere at a sharp angle and started to burn up, and then impacted just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, near the town of Chicora. Dubbed "the Chicora Meteor", it had an aura of mystery to it, for no trace of its landing has ever been found! Scientists speculate that the meteor may in fact have been an "airburst", similar to the Tunguska blast of 1908, which leveled an entire forest.

As if to support this hypothesis, only two fragments of the meteorite were found following initial investigations. They had masses 242g and 61g, and were discovered some miles short of the calculated point of impact of the main mass - which has yet to be found.

The sound and light of the exploding meteor were initially mistaken for an explosion in the powder magazine at West Winfield. The blast was compared by investigators FW Preston, EP Henderson and James R Randolph as comparable to the Halifax explosion of 1917--in which 500 acres of buildings and private property were completely obliterated! That same explosion also caused a tsunami and fire which destroyed two adjacent towns!

The report concluded, "If it [the meteor] had landed on Pittsburgh there would have been few survivors."

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So, don't tell yourself, "It couldn't happen." It already has! Only sheer luck spared Pittsburgh, PA, from being turned into, "The Pit"!

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