Fireball Graces Bay Area

BAY AREA FIREBALL: Last night, Oct. 17th, many people near San Francisco saw a slow-moving fireball exploding in the sky around 07:45 pm PDT. Witnesses report bright flashes of light and sonic booms that shook houses. Using a wide-field camera, Wes Jones caught the meteor disappearing behind the trees in the city of Belmont:

“We don’t know yet if the end point [of the meteor’s flight] was over land or water,” says meteor expert Peter Jenniskens of the NASA Ames Research Center. Jenniskens operates a network of Cameras for All-sky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) near the Bay Area. “Data from the CAMS system should give us an answer [about landfall]. We’re analyzing the data now.” Stay tuned.

Note: Although Earth is nearing a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, source of the Orionid meteor shower, this fireball was probably not an Orionid. The timing and direction of the meteor do not seem to match the Orionids.

fr/Spaceweather.com

Northern California Quakes

California Earthquakes: Twin Shocks Jolt Nothern California

08/24/11 09:04 AM ET   AP

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — While the East Coast recovers from earthquake jitters, small quakes have been rocking California.

The U.S. Geological Survey says in a computer-generated report that the latest was a magnitude-4.4 quake that struck at 4:59 a.m. Wednesday about nine miles southeast of Mammoth Lakes.

A Mono County sheriff’s dispatcher who didn’t give her name says there were a couple of “just wondering” calls but no reports of damage.

There was a magnitude-3.6 quake centered six miles southeast of Oakland at 11:36 p.m. Tuesday.

That shaker was felt by people throughout the San Francisco Bay area, but there are no reports of damage.

fr/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/24/california-earthquakes-twin-shocks-bay-area_n_935154.html