Fireball over Ohio and Indiana.

Witnesses across Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, and Wisconsin have reported observing a bright fireball meteor slightly after 11.35 pm local time Friday 3 May 2024 (slightly after 3.35 am on Saturday 4 May, GMT). The fireball is described as having moved from southeast to northwest, appearing to the northwest of Columbus and disappearing to the east of Fort Wayne. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. These are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in the atmosphere, but can be the result of man-made space-junk burning up on re-entry.

The 3 May 2025 fireball meteor, seen from Quincy,  Illinois. Jason Langston/American Meteor Society.

Objects of this size probably enter the Earth's atmosphere several times a year, though unless they do so over populated areas they are unlikely to be noticed. They are officially described as fireballs if they produce a light brighter than the planet Venus. The brightness of a meteor is caused by friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is typically far greater than that caused by simple falling, due to the initial trajectory of the object. Such objects typically eventually explode in an airburst called by the friction, causing them to vanish as a luminous object. However, this is not the end of the story as such explosions result in the production of a number of smaller objects, which fall to the ground under the influence of gravity (which does not cause the luminescence associated with friction-induced heating).

Heat map showing areas where sightings of the meteor were reported (warmer colours indicate more sightings), and the apparent path of the object (blue arrow). American Meteor Society.

These 'dark objects' do not continue along the path of the original bolide, but neither do they fall directly to the ground, but rather follow a course determined by the atmospheric currents (winds) through which the objects pass. Scientists are able to calculate potential trajectories for hypothetical dark objects derived from meteors using data from weather monitoring services.

See also...

Flash flood kills six in Indiana.

Six people have died after a flash flood swept away a bridge in Franklin County, Indiana, on Friday 20 March 2020. The incident happened at about 5.00 am local time to a bridge over the Sanes Creek near Laurel, with two vehicles, described by the Franklin County Sheriff's Department as a van and a truck, being washed into the creek. All of the victims are reported to have come from Laurel, and have been identified as Shawn Roberts, 47, Burton Spurlock, 48, Felina Lewis, 35, and her three children, a boy of 13 and two girls aged 7 and 4, whose names have not been released.

Bridge over the Sanes Creek in Franklin County, Indiana, which was swept away by a flash flood on Friday 20 March 2020. Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Law Enforcement Division.

The indident is reported to have happened after several days of heavy rain in the area, with 65 mm of rain falling between Wednesday 18 and Friday 20 March, of which 20 mm fell between midnight and 5.00 am on Friday. The area where the incident happened is reported to have many small, steep-sided valleys where the drainage can quickly become overwhelmed by high rainfall, leading to flash flooding.

See also...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Fireball over Lake Michigan.

The American Meteor Society has received reports of a bright fireball meteor being seen over the Lake Michigan, slightly before 11.50 pm on Friday 10 May 2019 Central Time (about 4.50 am on Saturday 11 May GMT). The meteor was seen from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, with the majority of the reports coming from Illinois. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. These are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in the atmosphere, but can be the result of man-made space-junk burning up on re-entry. 

The 10 May 2019 Lake Michigan Meteor, seen from Elgin, Illinois. Bluff City Jeff/Twitter.

A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. These are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in the atmosphere, but can be the result of man-made space-junk burning up on re-entry. This object appeared to move north-to-south, passing over Lake Michigan and part of Indiana, where it disappeared. 

 Map showing areas where sightings of the meteor were reported, and the apparent path of the object (blue arrow). American Meteor Society.

Objects of this size probably enter the Earth's atmosphere several times a year, though unless they do so over populated areas they are unlikely to be noticed. They are officially described as fireballs if they produce a light brighter than the planet Venus. The brightness of a meteor is caused by friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is typically far greater than that caused by simple falling, due to the initial trajectory of the object. Such objects typically eventually explode in an airburst called by the friction, causing them to vanish as an luminous object. However this is not the end of the story as such explosions result in the production of a number of smaller objects, which fall to the ground under the influence of gravity (which does not cause the luminescence associated with friction-induced heating).

 

These 'dark objects' do not continue along the path of the original bolide, but neither do they fall directly to the ground, but rather follow a course determined by the atmospheric currents (winds) through which the objects pass. Scientists are able to calculate potential trajectories for hypothetical dark objects derived from meteors using data from weather monitoring services.

 

Witness reports can help astronomers to understand these events. If you witness a fireball-type meteor over the US you can report it to the American Meteor Society here. 

 

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Federal Bureau of Investigations seeks help tracing the origin of looted cultural items.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Art Crime Team is seeking help in tracing the origin of thousands of items recovered from the home of an amateur archaeologist and anthropologist in 2014, and believed to have been looted from sites around the world. The objects were found following a tip-off in 2013, that led the Bureau to the home of Don Miller, a 91-year-old former Manhattan Project physicist who had amassed a collection of around 42 000 items over seven decades from all around the globe. While the majority of these items are believed to have been obtained legally, with Miller regularly opening up his collection to schools and other visitors, some items were not on public display and around 7000 have been identified as having come from illegal sources or been looted by Miller himself, including around 500 sets of Human remains, the majority of which are thought to have come from Native American burial grounds in the USA.

Artefacts on display at Don Miller's farm in 2014. For more than seven decades, Miller unearthed cultural artefacts from North America, South America, Asia, the Caribbean, and in Indo-Pacific regions such as Papua New Guinea. FBI.

The FBI team, which was headed by Special Agent Tim Carpenter, established a facility to process the recovered material, much of which was ancient and delicate, leasing a property near Indianapolis where the artefacts could be stored securely, and where controlled temperatures and humidity could be maintained. They also sought help in handline the material from Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, who set up a team of anthropologists and archaeologists under the leadership of Holly Cusack-McVeigh, to make sure everything was handled with appropriate care.

Museum studies graduate students from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis help care for the recovered artefacts in a facility near Indianapolis where all the recovered artefacts are housed securely and temperature, humidity, and light levels are controlled. Students and highly trained Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis staff also help prepare the artefacts for shipping when repatriation occurs. FBI.

Recognising that much of the material, and particularly the Human remains, had been looted from Native American sites in the US, the FBI involved Native American groups in the operation very early on, contacting representatives of the almost 600 recognized Native American tribes in order to have them help to review the items and return them to their owners or burial sites. They also contacted other nations via the United Nations, asking them to nominate experts to review the material so that where possible it could be repatriated to the countries from which it was taken.

Dozens of Colombian artefacts recovered by the FBI were repatriated during a ceremony in October 2018 at the Colombian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Seen in the background are FBI Special Agent Max Marker and Colombian Ambassador His Excellency Francisco Santos. FBI.

Despite these steps, five years after the original operation only about 15% of the material has been returned to its rightful owners, and the FBI have decided to publicize the case, and has issued a press release asking official representatives of Native American tribes and foreign governments that would like to determine whether they have a claim to any of the recovered artefacts to contact the Bureau’s art theft program.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Sinkhole traps car in Hobart, Indiana.

A car had to be winched out of a sinkhole after its front end became trapped in Hobart in Lake County, Indiana, on the morning of Wednesday 11 April 2018. City engineers had observed subsidence of the road earlier in the week, and made arrangements for repairs to begin, but the road collapsed before these were started, trapping the car.

Car trapped by a sinkhole on Lincoln Street, in Hobart Indiana, on 11 April 2018. Hobart Police Department.

Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace.

However in this occasion the sinkhole is believed to have been caused by a ruptured sewerage pipe, which washed away unconsolidated sediments beneath the road, leading to the collapse.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

A new species of blind Cavefish from Indiana.

Cavefish (Amblyopsidae) are a group of predominantly cave-dwelling Perciform Fish from North America. Of the eight currently described species three are found at the surface, predominantly around springs, and five species are exclusively subterranean. 

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 29 May 2014, Prosanta Chakrabarty and Jacques Prejean of the Ichthyology Section at the Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University and Matthew Niemiller, also of the Ichthyology Section at the Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University as well as the Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky, describe a new species of Cavefish from Idaho.

This species is described from previously known and well-studied populations assigned to the species Amblyopsis spelaea, which has previously been used to describe Cavefish from limestone karst caves on the Crawford-Mammoth Cave Uplands and Mitchell Plain in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, and which has been shown by genetic studies to in fact be two separate, cryptic, species on either side of the Ohio River, which apparently presents an impassable boundary to the distribution of the Fish. Since Amblyopsis spelaea was originally described from specimens from south of the Ohio River in Kentucky, this name is retained for the Kentucky species while the Indiana species is renamed Amblyopsis hoosieri, or the Hoosier Cavefish, a term for a resident of the state of Indiana.

Distribution of Amblyopsis spp., Amblyopsis spelaea and Amblyopsis hoosieri, in the Mitchell Plain and Crawford-Mammoth Uplands of Indiana and Kentucky. Chakrabarty et al. (2014).

Amblyopsis hoosieri is completely blind, lacking eyes of any sort, and is also completely lacking in pigment. Adult specimens reach 60-80 mm in length, and being slightly more plump and fleshy than Fish from south of the Ohio River in Kentucky, which are still classed as Amblyopsis spelaea.

Photograph of Amblyopsis hoosieri in life. Matthew Niemiller in Chakrabarty et al. (2014).

Amblyopsis hoosieri has been found living in large streams and pools with depths between ten centimetres and two metres. It favours slower moving waters, and will seek refuge in crevices in the rock during periods of higher flow. It breeds between February and April, when the water levels are highest in the caves where it dwells. Females brood the eggs internally, and continue to care for the fry for several months after they hatch. Sexual maturity is thought to be reached in 3-4 years, with the fish living for at least 12-15 years, and possibly in excess of 20 years. The Cavefish feed on Isopod, Copepod and Amphipod Crustaceans, with larger individuals sometimes tackling Crayfish. They have no known natural predators. 

Amblyopsis spelaea was considered to be Endangered in Indiana by NatureServe, a designation which should now be applied to Amblyopsis hoosieri. Similarly Amblyopsis spelaea is considered Vulnerable on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, a classification which should also be applied to Amblyopsis hoosieri. The species is known from 74 localities, but it is thought that some of these populations only exist because of replenishment by fresh Fish from a smaller number of source populations. The species is thought to be highly vulnerable to groundwater pollution, particularly from pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Some habitats previously occupied by the Fish have been completely destroyed by limestone quarrying, while others are prone to disturbance by commercial cave tours, with an uncertain impact on the Fish. Finally some populations were heavily collected by scientists studying adaptations to cave-dwelling in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which may have impacted upon these populations.

See also…

 A new species of Cichlid Fish from Lake Tanganyika.

The Cichlid Fish genus Chalinochromis is endemic to Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. To date two species have been formally...

 Two new species of Gourami from Sumatra.

Gourami (Osphronemidae) are freshwater members of the Perch Order (Perciformes) found from Pakistan to Korea and south to Indonesia. They are often found in shallow, warm, oxygen-poor waters, and have a special lung-like labyrinth organ, that allows...


 A new species of Cichlid Fish from the Río Acaray in Paraguay.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Sinkhole swallows car in Evansville, Indiana.

A car carrying four passengers was swallowed by a sinkhole in Evansville in southern Indiana on Friday 30 May 2014. Timothy Stone, his girlfriend and their two children had stopped at a junction when they felt the car beginning to sink. All four were able to escape the care safely, but the front of the car was swallowed by a sinkhole that opened up to 3.5 m wide and 5 m deep, and had to be rescued by a pair of towing trucks.

The vehicle trapped in the Evansville sinkhole on 30 May 2014. Kevin Swank/The Evansville Courier & Press.

Sinkhole are typically caused by the erosion of soft sediments or limestone beneath the surface, creating voids that can open up unexpectedly. On this occasion the hole appears to have been triggered by the collapse of a sewer main, which lead to the washing away sediments beneath the road, and triggering the collapse of a water main, leading to further water loss and further erosion, eventually causing the overlying road to collapse.

The approximate location of the 30 May 2014 Evansville sinkhole. Google Maps.

See also...

 One person rescued after Chicago sinkhole swallows pickup truck.

One person had to be rescued by the Chicago Fire Department after a...

 US Marine killed by Missouri Sinkhole.

A US Marine has died after falling into a 20 m sinkhole while hunting deer in near Buckthorn in Pulaski County, Missouri, on the...

 Car swallowed by sinkhole in Indianapolis.

A man in his twenties was taken to hospital with neck and back pains after his car was partially swallowed on English Avenue in Indianapolis slightly before 8.00 am local time (slightly before noon, GMT) on Monday 9 September 2013. The sinkhole is believed to have been caused by a burst water main washing sediments away...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.