CHELYABINSK METEORITES SPECIMENS

On February 15th, 2013 at 9:22 A.M. local time a tremendous fireball lit up the sky over the city of Chelyabinsk southwest Russia. Shortly afterwards, a massive shockwave equivalent to a 300-kiloton explosion rocked the area. Windows were blown out in thousands of buildings and nearly 1,000 people were injured, primary from flying glass. Some residents reportedly thought nuclear war and begun and the world was about to end.

The cause of this destruction was a meteor about 55 feet in diameter that had entered Earth's atmosphere before exploding 18 miles above the surface. Much of this meteor vaporized during this airburst, but thousands of small stones, most only weighing a few grams, rained down around several villages about 40 kilometers southwest of Chelyabinsk. The meteorite stones and fragments ranged from less than 1 gram to 1.8 kilograms in weight. The total mass collected by locals is estimated to be between 100 and 1000 kilograms. Most of these stones have a black or brown fusion crust. This meteorite is classified as an LL5 Chondrite.