| |
|
Article: <5fsqba$j9a@dfw-ixnews8.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: TUNGUSKA
Date: 8 Mar 1997 22:48:10 GMT
In article
<Forum.857762539.23884.richard.caldwell@OSF25.oklaosf.state.ok.us>
Richard Caldwell writes:
> The point is that a giant cloud of methane, even mixed with
> the air, would not create sufficiently high overpressures to
> cause an explosion of the energy level seen at Tunguska.
> Instead, being ligher than air, it would burn upward,
creating
> a large, mushroom shaped blue/yellow fireball that would be
> visible for miles at night, but less visible in the daytime.
The
> upward rush of the heated air would cause a
"whooshing"
> sound and a maybe even a noticeable wind at ground level.
> But, the wind would be rushing inward, toward the bottom of
> the fireball, not outward.
> Richard Caldwell
<richard.caldwell@OSF25.oklaosf.state.ok.us>
(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
An excellent analysis by a thinking mind. In your descriptions of
gas burns, you are dealing with limited areas where the expanding
gasses can escape, and transporting this experience to the
Tunguska situation. You're saying that hot air rises, creating a
whoosh, but a large area burning would find the pressure moving
in all directions. This is in fact what happens in explosions,
where the pressure is great enough. Heat rising from a hot plate
drifts off as a breeze. Heat rising from a limited gas burn
creates a whoosh. Heat trying to escape from an explosion presses
in all directions.
Recall that witnesses first described Tunguska as a blue flame
that reminded them of the Auroras. Here the heat was rising, but
what is the drama at the BOTTOM of this burn? The heat presses
down as well, as it CANNOT rise, the heat in the middle of the
burn being the greater press, moving outward to the edges in an
attempt to equalize, and this edge INCLUDES the bottom edge of
the burning cloud. At a certain point, the gasses on the bottom
are heated by the overburn, are burning themselves, but have
nowhere to send their heat. This heat is COMPRESSED by the drama
above, but this compression does NOT STOP the burning process.
Thus an explosive pressure is created!
(End ZetaTalk[TM])