Meteor brings memories of Ames Astrobleme

Meteor brings memories of Ames Astrobleme

The damage stunned viewers but here in Oklahoma we’re no stranger to meteorites.

Seeing the red-hot meteor exploding over Russia leaves Harold Hamm wondering what Ames, Okla. look like when this Astrobleme site was created.

“It’s interesting to see and imagine what took place and what it must have been like,” Hamm said.

A meteorite hit Ames creating the crater 450 million years ago.

CEO of Continental Resources, Hamm, and his team of geologists found oil there in the 1990s, lots of it.

“Some things never change much,” he said. “You still have the natural forces of the world all around us.”

The Ames meteorite would dwarf the one in Russia.

Judging by the football field-sized hole it left, it was about 1,000 feet in diameter.

“They’re just nothing to mess with.”

In Russia, the sonic boom created by the meteor shattered windows and injured more than 500.

“To see a meteorite coming in and have it filmed and actually see the glow from it and see the explosion and the damage it created, you read about it study it but to see the video is phenomenal,” Jack Stark said, Senior Vice President-Exploration at Continental Resources.

Russia’s meteor is too small to create a crater that could hold oil in millions of years.

The Ames Astrobleme is a rare event but Hamm says it could happen again.

“The power of nature is tremendous and could one hit? Sure. It would be very disastrous if it did,” Hamm said.

For now, he just enjoys watching the fiery path of this meteor in awe of the spectacle from space.

If you want to know more about the Ames Astrobleme, drop into town.

Hamm built a small, fascinating museum about the ancient meteor that’s free and open to the public. (http://kfor.com)