INVESTIGATION OF A BRIGHT FLYING OBJECT OVER NORTHWEST SPAIN, 1994 JANUARY 18

On the early morning of 1994 January 18, a very bright luminous object crossed the sky of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. From visual sightin gs, it is concluded that the object wasn't a meteoric fireball (bolide ). A surface ''crater'' in Cando (close to Santiago) with dimensions 2 9 x 13 m and 1.5 m deep was later discovered within 1 km of the projec ted ''impact'' point of the luminous object. At this site, in addition to the topsoil, full-grown pine trees >20 m high were thrown downhill over a nearby road, leaving the downslope edge of the ''crater'' unto uched and with a steep interior wall (this would not be the case if a regular landslide were responsible for the transport). Standing trees below the ''crater'' showed embedded soil and plant residues up to hei ghts >3 m. No strange materials (meteorites or artifacts) were recover ed in or close to the ''crater''; all materials belonged to the site a nd were not shocked; thus, an impact is very improbable. A possible ex planation capable of reconciling all of the observations is presented. It hypothesizes an eruption of earth gases to create the crater, with the rising gas plume then interacting with atmospheric electricity to produce the propagating fireball that was observed.