QUOTE (mchan @ Jun 9 2006, 04:39 AM)
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The heat from atmospheric friction would be carried off by boil off of the meteorite surface. Rock / ice is a fair insulator. The short time of passage thru the atmosphere would not allow for the interior of the meteorite to increase significantly in temperature. But even if the meteorite could absorb much of the energy from atmospheric deceleration, that energy would be low compared with the energy released by the surface impact.
Rivers forming from impact craters would imply some energy release sustained over time. I guess there would be no large flows.
[edit] There could be shock heating of the meteorite interior during the atmospheric passage.
On Earth meteorite were found which were icy cold just after falling. A meteorite called of Dhurmsala (or Durmsalah, spelling can vary) which fell at the end of the 19th century 80kms north east of Dharamsalah, India, was so cold that it gave frost and make fingers dumb a quater of an hour after falling. This cold was, of course, from space (it was a light grey stone chondrite, which equilibrium temperature in space is far bellow zero). Of course, the outside layer of this meteorite burned into the air, and heat difference made the meteorite break appart, low enough into the atmosphere so that the inner blocks could no more be heated. This configuration may be relatively rare, but it proves that a meteorite is not necessarily hot when it falls on the ground.