Where to begin? This is an unusual phenomenon
that is very much akin to earthlights. Earthlights are thought to be
created by the stresses in the earth's crust that ultimately produce
an energy display in the form of lights that can travel through the
sky at random. Whether this is the cause or not, they have been
observed many times throughout the world and they have even been
observed by this author on one occasion.
Green fireballs seem to have a liking for the
state of New Mexico. Most of the sightings of green fireballs do
happen in that state. Other states and countries of the world have
seen them as well. Why New Mexico experiences the bulk of them is
anybody's guess. Even the military has done it's own study of the
phenomenon in New Mexico, as many Air Force personnel have witnessed
this peculiar sight. Holloman Air Force Base has experienced several
episodes with both on the ground observation and by flying aircraft as
well. The study to my knowledge has been ongoing and no conclusions
have been drawn to this date, or at least disclosed to the public.
Green fireballs do fly through the sky in
arcs or in straight lines, and are usually of a very short duration.
These "lights" are only visible for a matter of seconds in
most cases. They streak through the sky much as a flare shot out of a
flare pistol would do. The fireballs do tend to be a little bit larger
than a flare with diameters from a foot, to two feet. The occurrence
of them is not very often, so if you are lucky enough to see one, you
are among a select few to have witnessed the phenomenon.
My encounter with a green fireball happened
when I was traveling through the state of Iowa heading north on
Interstate 29. The conditions were as follows.. The weather outside
was below freezing in fact around 15 degrees. That was an important
point that I did recall, and for a specific reason. The time was
approximately 2:30 a.m. in the morning. Snow was on the ground at the
time. The roadway was flat with excellent visibility. A friend and I
were traveling north to visit my father for the Thanksgiving Day
Weekend. The year of this incident was 1973. There is the what and
where for your consideration. One thing is to remember the time, the
temperature, and the location, which was quite rural. There were no
towns nearby, and the closest farm was about a mile away or more. So
that is the data to consider.
My friend and I had left Kansas City after we
got off of work. The drive up to my father's house was about a five
and a half to six hour drive. We left around 11:30 p.m. from Kansas
City. As we drove, we were talking and having a good time listening to
music. I was driving at the time of the incident. We drove up across
the Iowa border from Missouri. Soon after we entered Iowa, we were
both watching the road out in front as we talked. Suddenly from across
the Interstate about 100 yards out in a field, a brilliant green
fireball lit up the sky as it jumped skyward. The green fireball was
so brilliant, that it was almost blinding to the both of us. It went
almost straight up in the air about 100 feet and then it began an arc
northward. Shortly after it leveled out, it disappeared from sight.
My friend and I were astonished to say the least. The diameter was
probably about a foot or so. We both looked at each other with a
shocked look on our faces. I asked my friend if he saw that, but the
question was obsolete, since I saw the expression on his face. We both
shook our heads and decided that we didn't want to discuss it, since
we couldn't figure out what it was.
This object was larger than a flare, but not
too unlike a flare in appearance. It even traveled about as a flare
would if shot from a flare pistol. Then one would ask, what would
someone be doing, lying down in a field at such a cold temperature in
the snow, miles away from any town, shooting off a flare gun at 2:30
in the morning? Since the fireball lit up the entire area, we had a
good view of the place where it came from. There was no one standing
there at all. No one was visible, and they couldn't have hid from us
as the field was harvested and flat as a pancake. Even if they were
laying on the ground, we could have seen them. Thinking at first that
it was a flare, I did look to see who was shooting it. I wondered if
someone was in trouble and shot a flare off. There was no one there,
and the flare type object was much larger in diameter than any flare.
This incident only took about 4 or 5 seconds from start to finish.
What was it? Why was it? This was sort of perplexing, and to this day
I can only think that I my friend and I were fortunate to see the
green fireball phenomenon first hand. It wasn't until years later that
I even heard of "green fireballs".
The phenomenon is not unknown any longer.
These do occur and are witnessed by highly qualified observers. Pilots
see them, as do other qualified observers. Apparently these are caused
by stresses in the earths crust which eventually manifest themselves
into a release of energy that is visible and moves through the
atmosphere for a short duration of time.
I have watched television programs that deal
with green fireballs, and earthlights as well. The scientists always
try to re-create the visible anomaly in their labs. These scientists
attempt to put rocks into a hydraulic press and crush the rocks until
they split open. They always film it of course with high speed film
cameras so that they can record any results on film. They have been
successful in filming tiny moving lights that emanate from the rock
when it reaches the breaking point. This does seem to show that the
phenomenon has a plausible explanation. Their methods of creating
visible light from a release of energy does work however, I
accidentally stumbled on a much easier method to test the green
fireball light for yourself. This method is both simple and cost
effective. The whole idea is to create light from stress right? That
is what the scientists are trying to accomplish. Stress turned into
visible light. Try this yourself and you will see that not only does
the method produce visible light, but it also produces the correct
color of light that my friend and I witnessed. The light won't be
1/1000th as bright as we saw, but the color and the fact that it
proves the stress to light theory does work, should satisfy you. Go
buy a roll of ordinary duct tape at the store. If you already have
some just get it out. Believe it or not, that is all you need. Go into
a closet or somewhere totally dark. Here is how this works. When you
pull the duct tape away from the roll, there is stress at the point
where you are pulling the glue away from the roll. The faster you
pull, the more light there will be. The more stress there is, the more
light. Simple enough isn't it? So pull on the end of the tape and
watch the point where the tape is leaving the roll. In other words,
look at the glue side near the roll and you will see green light
caused by the stress that you are creating by pulling the stubborn
glue away from the roll. This produces it's own light. The light will
be green in color and also bright, if you pull it at the right speed.
So green fireballs do exist. I have seen one,
and so have other people. They fly up into the sky from the earth at
random times, and are apparently caused from stresses in the earth
itself, that do manifest into this weird but explainable phenomenon.
Some may think they are seeing a buffo, but in this instance you can
reproduce the light and show how it exists. The question of green
fireballs is laid to rest, and we can close the case on this one.
There are many questions still to be answered about them, but for the
most part we know how they are formed. We might ask, how much pressure
does it take for one to form? Or we could also ask, what in physics
determines the point at which it will exit the ground? The green
fireball phenomenon seems very similar in nature to ball lightning as
well. It could be a form of ball lightning that is created by a
different method as opposed to how ball lightening is formed.
You may see a green fireball someday, and if
you do, it will get your attention. It's an odd place out there
sometimes....Gtars said it.. See you next week with another oddity.
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