[meteorite-list] Giant Meteorite Wrecked Forest In Siberia?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:09 2004
Message-ID: <200307281517.IAA02098_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1393004,00.htmltop

Giant meteorite wrecked forest
News 24 (South Africa)
July 27, 2003

Moscow - A giant meteorite that struck the Irkutsk region of Siberia last September
had the force of a nuclear bomb of medium power and devastated a huge area of taiga,
Russian scientists reported on Friday.

A 10-strong expedition of scientists and doctors was unable to identify and reach
the place where the meteorite landed until mid-May. It was finally located in the
very remote, wooded semi-mountainous region of Bodaibo, northeast of Irkutsk and
Lake Baikal.

"Over an area of 100 square kilometres trees were smashed in a pattern
characteristic of very powerful blast effects," expedition leader Vadim Chernobrov
told a news conference.

He said that the meteorite had disintegrated before hitting the ground and had left
about 20 craters, up to 20 metres in diameter, with an explosion "equivalent to the
power of an atomic bomb of medium size".

A video made by the expedition and shown to reporters showed shattered and sometimes
burnt tree stumps, charred by the high temperatures released by the explosion.

Meteorites are large rocks that tumble through space and then get caught in the
Earth's gravity, becoming red-hot with the heat of the atmosphere.

Unlike meteors, which burn up completely as they fall and are occasionally visible
in the night sky as shooting stars, meteorites are rocks which are so big they make
it all the way to the ground.

The brightest such phenomenon ever recorded during human history also happened over
Siberia. In 1908 a meteorite hit the Tunguska region, devastating the forest over
an area of some 2 000 square kilometres.

Many scientists also believe that in prehistoric times a massive meteorite that hit
what is now Central America may have caused the disappearance of the dinosaurs.
Received on Mon 28 Jul 2003 11:17:18 AM PDT