[meteorite-list] Five Chelyabinsk Meteorite Fragments Lifed From Lake

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:58:10 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201309261958.r8QJwAkE025544_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://en.ria.ru/science/20130926/183754123/Probable-Fragments-of-Chelyabinsk-Meteorite-Lifted-From-Lake.html

Probable Fragments of Chelyabinsk Meteorite Lifted From Lake
RIA Novosti
September 26, 2013

YEKATERINBURG - Divers have lifted from a Ural Mountain lake five rocks
thought to be fragments of the meteorite that exploded in February near
the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, a local environment ministry said Thursday.

The fragments, ranging from 10 to 30 centimeters in diameter, will now
be handed over to scientists for a thorough examination, the Chelyabinsk
Region's Radiation and Environmental Safety Ministry said in an online
statement.

The entire meteorite is estimated to have weighed 10,000 metric tons.
Divers have been working to fish out a huge chunk - thought to weigh several
hundred kilograms - buried under a 2.5-meter (eight-foot) layer of silt
at the bottom of Lake Chebarkul.

Currently, silt is being pumped out of the lakebed to free that piece
and possibly find others. The environment ministry's head, Alexander Galichin,
has said he believes that the large chunk will be recovered by October 4.

The meteorite exploded on February 15, leaving about 1,500 people injured,
mostly due to glass shattered by the shockwave. Scientists have said the
space rock was a typical chondrite, a stony, non-metallic meteorite.
Received on Thu 26 Sep 2013 03:58:10 PM PDT