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Description: The "Indiana Jones of Astronomy" takes readers on a fascinating hunt for scientific treasures On the morning of June 30, 1908, a comet nucleus or stony asteroid weighing 100,000 metric tons exploded four miles above the remote Siberian region of Tunguska with a force hundreds of times greater than the blast that destroyed Hiroshima. Eighty-four years later, American astronomer Roy Gallant was invited by the Russian Academy of Sciences to participate in its annual Tunguska Expedition. Gallant was the first American to take part in the Russian investigation of the largest meteorite impact in recorded history. So inspired was he by his experiences at Tunguska that he went on to devote the next eight years of his life to investigating and writing about meteorite impact sites around the globe. In Meteorite Hunter, Roy Gallant takes readers on a fascinating journey to the major meteorite sites of the wild and desolate Russian interior.
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Review Summary: Traveling in Russia and Fascinating Facts about Meteorites |
Date: 2004-01-26 |
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Details: I am surprised to see that no one has reviewed this book until now; it's been out for about two years and the title is certainly intriguing. Anyway, this book contains a nearly homogeneous mixture of essentially two seemingly unrelated subjects: (i) traveling within Russia and (ii) information on meteorites. The first is presented as a travelogue; it includes all sorts of little details on travel problems encountered in Russia (political and otherwise), food eaten, people encountered, etc. Interspersed with this, in each chapter, is fascinating information on meteorites, i.e., their origins, types, composition, behavior upon entering the earth's atmosphere and upon impacting the ground, etc. Each chapter addresses a specific meteorite site that was visited by the author, with the exception of the last chapter which is about comets and asteroids that are out in space and that may or may not pose a threat to life (or some of it) on earth. The book is well written and should be of interest to those planning to travel within Russia, as well as those interested in meteorites; and, of course, those interested in both. I gave the book four stars instead of five because, to me, the two subject areas, which may be worth five stars each, detract from each other. For me, the parts about meteorites per se, were great (five stars); but I found the travel information rather cumbersome - hence an overall four stars. |
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out of 1 Reviews
