First Megacryometeor Reported in Africa
Posted on July 17, 2006
TheStar.co.nz reports that the first megacryometeor has been reported in Africa. The megacryometeor was the size of a microwave and fell during a cloudless day. A Nasa scientists considers the megacryometeor a sign of "serious environmental problems."
Research conducted by a Nasa- affiliated scientist suggests that the frozen object that plummeted from the clear sky last Friday morning was one of the first "megacryometeors" to be recorded in Africa.Treehugger has more about megacryometeor including a photograph. Treehugger says scientists have linked the giant ice balls to an unusual condition in the "tropopause," the boundary between the troposphere (the lower atmosphere) and the stratosphere.And Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, head of the Planetary Geology Laboratory at the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, has warned that the microwave oven-sized ice object could be a portent of "serious environmental problems".
Frias is an authority in the megacryometeor phenomenon, having written a number of research papers on possible reasons for its development. According to his research, falling ice balls have been recorded since the 19th century.
And, six years ago, a plague of falling ice balls caused extensive damage to cars and an industrial storage facility in the Iberian Peninsula.
Located five to nine miles above the surface, the tropopause marks the limit of clouds and is important in the development of storms. Global warming may be making the tropopause colder, moister and more turbulent, creating conditions in which ice crystals grow like ordinary hailstones in thunderclouds, but much, much bigger. We recommend watching the skies and stocking up on umbrellas.An umbrella might not stop a large object like a megacryometeor.