Meteorite impact in Urals - hundreds of injuries (major piece found)

[Dr Mordrid]

I was thinking that the vast USSR, or whatever it's called now. is a meteor magnet.

Russian Federation.

Russian estimates are a mass of about 10 tonnes and a velocity of over 33,000 mph. Other estimates average out at 39,000 mph.

Meteorite impact simulations run here for a nickel-iron meteorite (gives an overpressure with effects like we're seeing) estimate the main explosion was at about 80,000 feet and was about 430 kilotons TNT equivalent (0.43 megaton.) 430 kt = about 29x Hiroshima - damned lucky it was a high airburst and not close to ground or the metro Chelyabinsk area would be flattened. Most damage from multiple smaller fragments and the overpressure of the shockwave.

Over 1,000 injuries so far, many in the hospital, some critical

NASA sez this regarding its relationship to asteroid 2012 DA14 -

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the trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14's trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north.
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Zinc factory damage


Fragment crater in nearby lake

[Dr Mordrid]

http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-urals-chelyabinsk-283/

Meteorite hits Russian Urals: Fireball explosion wreaks havoc, up to 1,200 injured (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Russia’s Urals region has been rocked by a meteorite explosion in the stratosphere. The impact wave damaged several buildings, and blew out thousands of windows amid frigid winter weather. Hundreds have sought medical attention for minor injuries.

Eyewitness accounts of the meteorite phenomenon, handpicked by RT.

Around 1200 people have sought medical attention in Chelyabinsk alone because of the disaster, the region's governor Mikhail Yurevich told RIA Novosti. Over 110 of them have been hospitalized and two of them are in heavy condition. Among the injured there are 159 children, Emergency ministry reported. A 52-year-old woman who suffered spinal fracture will be transported to Moscow for treatment.

Army units found three meteorite debris impact sites, two of which are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. The third site was found some 80 kilometers further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust. One of the fragments that struck near Chebarkul left a crater six meters in diameter.

Servicemembers from the tank brigade that found the crater have confirmed that background radiation levels at the site are normal.

Experts working at the site of the impact told Lifenews tabloid that the fragment is most likely solid, and consists of rock and iron.

A local fisherman told police he found a large hole in the lake’s ice, which could be a result of a meteorite impact. The site was immediately sealed off by police, a search team is now waiting for divers to arrive and explore the bottom of the lake.

Samples of water taken from the lake have not revealed any excessive radioactivity or foreign material.
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Chelyabinsk administration’s website said nearly 3,000 buildings were damaged to varying extents by the meteor shower in the city, including 34 medical facilities and 361 schools and kindergartens. The total amount of window glass shattered amounts to 100,000 square meters, the site said, citing city administration head Sergey Davydov. The ministry also said that no local power stations or civil aircraft were damaged by the meteorite shower, and that “all flights proceed according to schedule.”

Buildings were left without gas because facilities in the city had also been damaged, an Emergency Ministry spokesperson said, according to Russia 24 news channel.

The Emergency Ministry reported that 20,000 rescue workers are operating in the region. Three aircraft were deployed to survey the area and locate other possible impact locations.
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Meteosat 10 (weather satellite) image of the entry


Another view of lake crater

[Brian Ellis]

NASA sez this regarding its relationship to asteroid 2012 DA14 -

I like the BBC term "cosmic coincidence"!!!

[Dr Mordrid]

There were tweets tonight about another fireball over San Francisco, the third since October.

We're all DOOMED!!

[Dr Mordrid]

It'll be interesting to see if its track parallels the Urals event.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2013-02/16/c_132171646.htm

Suspected meteor explosion reported in central Cuba

2013-02-16 12:59:27

HAVANA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- An object fell from the sky over central Cuba on Thursday night and turned into a fireball "bigger than the sun" before it exploded, a Cuban TV channel reported Friday, citing eyewitnesses.

Some residents in the central province of Cienfuegos were quoted as saying that at around 8 p.m. local time Thursday (0100 GMT Friday) they saw a bright spot in the sky comparable to a bus in size.

The object then turned into a fireball "bigger than the sun," said the witnesses, adding that several minutes later they heard a loud explosion.

One resident told the TV station that his house shook slightly in the blast.

Cuban experts have been dispatched to the area to look for possible remains of the meteor-like object, said the report.

It remains unknown whether the reported phenomenon in Cuba is related to Friday's meteor strike in central Russia, which set off a shockwave that shattered windows and left some 1,000 people injured.

[Evildead666]

Hehe, its the beginning of the End lol.

The video is really good quality, and its just soo bright.

Wonder what metals / elements might be found in the fragments ? Anything new possible ?

[Dr Mordrid]

Because of the reports of a rain of silvery fragments, the effects etc. it's looking like a stony-iron, a mix of stoney and a nickel-iron. They make up about 2% of meteorites and come in 2 flavors; pallasites and mesosiderites. Pallasites are rare, <50 known, and formed inside highly differentiated asteroids or broken up protoplanets. They tend to contain olivine inclusions. Trivia: Kryptonite was supposed to be an olivine with unknown radioisotopes which fell inside a pallasite. Mesosiderites are more common and formed in asteroid collisions.

I'm sure as soon as they can the Russians will do a detailed analysis.

[Dr Mordrid]

Updated numbers -

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1302/15meteor/#.USBJUL-9LTo

Streaking meteor unleashed biggest blast in a century

Editor's Note: NASA has revised their size and energy estimates for the Russia meteor upon review of further data. Scientists now believe the small asteroid was about 17 meters, or 55 feet, in diameter and had a mass of 10,000 tons. The revised estimate of energy unleashed by the meteor is about 500 kilotons, more than 30 times the blast yield of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

A meteoric blast over Russia on Friday was the biggest in more than 100 years, according to scientists, releasing 500 kilotons of energy, shattering windows, and injuring more than 1,000 people.

The injuries were mostly cuts and bruises from broken glass, according to Russian state news reports.

The meteor appeared at 9:20 a.m. local time (0320 GMT; 10:20 p.m. EST) near Chelyabinsk in Russia's Ural Mountains.

NASA scientists told reporters Friday a 55-foot-wide asteroid streaked over Russia at 40,000 mph, briefly glowing as bright as the sun as it broke apart from intense heat and pressure and plowed deeper into the atmosphere.

"This is the largest recorded event since the Tunguska explosion in 1908," said Paul Chodas, research scientist in the Near-Earth Object program office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
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Chodas called the Russian meteor a "tiny asteroid" and said it approached in a north-to-south direction, meaning there is no chance the object was related to the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14, which harmlessly flew more than 17,000 miles from Earth later Friday.
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[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/15/shock_meteorite_strike_russia/

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Australian astronomer Brad Tucker has also pointed out that a brief magnitude 6.8 earthquake in the remote settlement of Syagannakh in Russia's Yakutia Republic was close to the right time to have been associated with the meteorite. A seismic plot shows a "short, sharp shock" that might have been some of the space rock exploding in the air, although Tucker acknowledges it could also be a coincidence.
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Seismograph during meteor event: 6.8 magnitude

[Dr Mordrid]

Good article in Nature....

http://www.nature.com/news/the-death-of-the-chebarkul-meteor-1.12540

[paulw]

Saw a couple of good British documentaries on the strike last week..

[Dr Mordrid]

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=20586178&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Russian scientists have recovered a giant chunk of the Chelyabinsk meteorite from the bottom of the lake it crashed into.

The meteor that blazed across southern Urals in February was the largest recorded strike in more than a century. More than 1,600 people were injured by the shock wave from the explosion as it hit near the city of Chelyabinsk, estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs.

Scientists on Wednesday recovered what could be the largest part of the meteorite from Chebarkul Lake outside the city. They weighed it using a giant steelyard balance, which displayed 570 kilograms (1,256 pounds) before breaking.

Sergei Zamozdra, an associate professor at Chelyabinsk State University, told Russian television the excavated fragment was definitely a chunk of the meteorite.

[Marshmallowman]

a few more articles with more details

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/10/16/russians-pull-huge-meteorite-from-lake-and-promptly-break-it/?intcmp=trending

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-russian-meteorite-lake-ice-chelyabinsk-meteor-20131016,0,2634355.story