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covering an area of about 3 X 7 km, causing surprisingly minor damage
to buildings and no serious injuries. This is the third recorded fall
in Uganda. A loud explosion was heard which persisted for some time as
a rumbling noise at about 3:40 P.M. One of the stones hit the roof of
the local railway station and another hit the roof of a cottage. A
third stone, smashed into a cotton factory and broke into pieces when
it hit a machine. (This stone is currently at The Smithsonian
Institution in Washington D.C.) Industrial activity was brought to a
halt prematurely as many workers took off in disarray, Thinking it was
a bomb explosion. For another two minutes, what was described as a
grayish-white smoke trail and a compact dust cloud was visible in the
otherwise clear sky. Several eyewitnesses described the falling of
stones which were accompanied by sounds like gun fire. Many observers
noticed the dust cloud, but only two accounts mention the meteor. A
young boy reported that he was hit on the head by a small meteorite of
3.6 grams. The stone was slowed down by the leaves of a nearby banana
plant from an initial impact velocity which must have been about 30
miles per second. Because of this, he fortunately remained in position
to recover the stone. The stones fell during a wet season, and at the
time a large part of the relevant area was inaccessible due to high
grass vegetation and damp soil. The meteorites were found in small
villages, along the many narrow pathways that cross these marshes, and
close to the railway tracks. There are enough of such areas to argue
that the general orientation of the strewn field is well determined.
The general pattern is in a NW to SE orientation, with the largest
fragments in the SE. However, the largest fragments (masses above 2 kg)
are found in a more North to South oriented pattern. All meteorites are
fully covered by fusion crust, unless there is good evidence that the
fragment was broken at, or usually after, impact. Even the smallest
meteorite, which weighs only 0.10 grams, was fully covered by a fusion
crust before a small part was removed to check the inside structure.
The interior is gray. Recent analysis of the Mbale meteorite,
preliminary yields a plateau age of about 500 million years. A total of
149.5 kg has been recovered. Missing fragments add another possible 50
kg of material.
E-mail Address: meteorites@att.net