Top 10 largest meteorites that fell to Earth in the 20th and 21st century

I think many are aware that our beloved planet is constantly “under fire” from space. Scientists from the Astrophysical Institute in Ottawa (Canada) claim that every year about 21 tons of meteorites weighing from a couple of grams to a whole ton each fall on the Earth. And thank God that most of these stones (or melted pieces of cosmic metal) burn out in the Earth’s atmosphere, not having time to reach its surface. But individual specimens still fall on the planet, sometimes retaining a considerable size, and then they leave clearly visible scars on its face.

So, in fact, giant meteorite craters are Lake Mistastin (Canada), Lake Bosumtwi (Ghana), Lake Elgygytgyn in Chukotka and many others. From the impacts of very large “space wanderers” formed the Barringer crater in Arizona (USA) with a diameter of 1200 meters, the 22-kilometer Gosses Bluff in Australia, the 300-kilometer (!) Vredefort in South Africa, etc. And a giant meteorite that fell on the territory of the future Mexico 65 million years ago and left a shock funnel with a diameter of 168 km (now called Chicxulub) as a memory of itself is considered by many scientists to be the cause of the death of dinosaurs.

It would seem that all this was a very long time ago. But no! Pretty solid meteorites arrive on Earth in our time. Let’s remember the 10 largest and most famous meteorites that “visited” the planet already in the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century.

10 Sutter Mill meteorite, USA, April 22, 2012

Scientists claim that the age of this “surprise from the Universe” is slightly less than that of the solar system itself. Flying at a tremendous speed of 29 km / s over arid Nevada and paradise California (and at the same time actively scattering its red-hot debris along the way), Sutter Mill invaded Washington airspace and exploded beautifully there. The power of this “fireworks” was approximately 4 kilotons. (Just a note: the Chelyabinsk meteorite “made a rustle” at 400+ kilotons).

9. A meteorite that fell in China on February 11, 2012

Oh, and beautiful, that February night must have been! Just imagine the picture: a dark, dark sky and thousands of bright lights of a meteor shower. About a hundred small meteorites that did not have time to evaporate in the atmosphere scattered over an area of ​​​​100 km². Astronomers have determined that this whole heap of rocks came to Earth from the asteroid belt (which, as you know, is located between Mars and Jupiter). By the way, one of them turned out to be not so small and “pulled out” by 12,6 kg. It’s just lucky that this boulder didn’t break through someone’s roof.

8. Peruvian meteorite, September 15, 2007

In September 2007, residents of an area near the high-altitude lake Titicaca (almost on the border of Peru and Bolivia) heard a sound resembling the howl of a dive plane. And soon a certain object engulfed in flames was clearly marked in the sky. He crashed to the ground with a crash, creating a 30-meter crater (6 meters deep), from where a mass of boiling water hit high up. Judging by further events, some poisonous substance (or substances) turned out to be part of the meteorite – after a couple of hours, more than 1,5 thousand people near its location began to complain of severe headaches.

7. Meteorite Kunya-Urgench, Turkmenistan, June 20, 1998

On a June evening in 1998, at half past five local time, residents of the town of Kunya-Urgench first saw a very bright light in the sky (so bright that large objects on the ground began to cast shadows), and then a dark cloud stretched along the flight path of a large and incomprehensible subject. Literally in seconds, a strong blow was heard, and everyone felt the earth tremble. The object fell on a cotton field, leaving a five-meter funnel. Its largest part weighed 820 kg. If meteorites knew how to be proud, this “strong man” would have a good reason to turn up his nose: he was officially recognized as the largest stone meteorite discovered in the CIS (and the third in the world!).

6. Meteorite Sterlitamak, May 17, 1990

Having landed on the arable land of the local state farm, about 20 km from the city of Sterlitamak (Southern Urals, Bashkiria), this iron block formed a 10-meter funnel, in which it crumbled into small fragments. Only a year later, scientists from the local scientific center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in Ufa) dug out its main part at a depth of 12 meters, which weighed 315 kg. Now this meteorite is stored in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the same scientific center.

5. Meteorite Jilin (Girin), China, March 8, 1976.

That brings China to the celestial phenomena! (Well, or unlucky – this, of course, depends on whether you yourself are at this moment under the threat of getting a sickly “bream” from a rapidly flying celestial cobblestone). In 1976, another “rockfall” in the province of Jilin (Girin) turned out to be very intense – it lasted 37 minutes in a row. Thousands of small meteorites fell from above at a speed of 12 km / s, and in total they were “piled up” in this way as much as 4 tons. The most solid weighed 1770 (!) Kg – it was recognized as the largest stone meteorite recorded by scientists.

4. Sikhote-Alin meteorite, Far East, February 12, 1947

In the winter of 1947, in the Sikhote-Alin mountains in the Soviet Far East (right above the Ussuri taiga), an event happened: the brightest fireball appeared in the morning sky, which was remembered by many eyewitnesses within a radius of almost 400 km (it was also visible in Khabarovsk). Having fallen apart in flight into numerous fragments, the meteorite made an “iron rain” in the area of ​​​​the village of Beitsukhe, at the same time organizing a weak earthquake. Later, its fragments were found on an area of ​​35 km². “Interstellar Wanderer” dug more than 30 craters 7-28 meters in diameter. The pilots of the Far Eastern Geological Administration were the first to find them. Soon, scientists and local residents found about 27 tons of fragments, the largest of which was pulled out by 1745 kg. The chemical analysis carried out found 94% iron in the meteorite. Now its fragments are stored in the Meteoritic Collection of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Khabarovsk Regional Museum named after A.I. N.I. Grodekov.

3. Goba Meteorite, Namibia, 1920

Strictly speaking, this heavenly guest came to Earth not in the 20th century, but much earlier (about 80 thousand years ago). But it was discovered in 1920. The owner of a farm called Goba West, not far from Grotfontein, was plowing his field and “ran into” this metal block purely by accident. At that time, the meteorite (which, by the way, has a surprisingly smooth and flat surface) weighed approximately 66 tons and had a volume of 9 m³. But for 35 years (before it was declared a national monument and began to be protected in 1955), this huge piece of metal managed to “lose weight” by 6 tons due to natural erosion, scientific experiments, but most of all – at the mercy of tourists , constantly trying to “pin off” a piece from the meteorite. Scientists consider Goba the largest specimen of an iron meteorite (it contains 84% ​​iron, the remaining 16% is nickel and a small admixture of cobalt), as well as the most powerful solid block of naturally occurring iron ever discovered. Today you can see this meteorite (for a small fee) at the same place where it was found.

2. Chelyabinsk meteorite, February 15, 2013

The Chelyabinsk meteorite can safely be called the most famous meteorite of the early 21st century, not least thanks to YouTube, where its fall could be watched almost online, since today every second inhabitant of a large Russian city has a smartphone with a good webcam. The spectacular flight of this handsome man, which lasted, in total, only 32 seconds, was filmed tens of thousands of times. Scientists consider the Chelyabinsk guest unique for several reasons: firstly, space bodies (thank God!) very rarely fall near large cities; secondly, it turned out to be the largest after the legendary Tunguska meteorite (before the explosion over Chelyabinsk, its weight was 10 tons, and its diameter was about 17 meters); thirdly, the Chelyabinsk meteorite entered the earth’s atmosphere at a very sharp angle – that is why it could be observed for a long time. A powerful explosion of a meteorite at an altitude of 23-25 ​​km directly above the city at 9.20 in the morning almost led to human casualties. Due to the shock wave, which knocked out windows in many residential buildings, offices and institutions of Chelyabinsk, 1613 people were injured (most from fragments of flying glass).

1. Tunguska meteorite, June 30, 1908

And, finally, the world-famous “star” among meteorites is the Tunguska miracle, or the Tunguska phenomenon, or simply the Tunguska meteorite. In the early June morning of 1908 (at about 7 o’clock), a huge fireball swept over the practically uninhabited areas of the Yenisei taiga from the southeast to the northwest (it was seen by several nomadic Evenki families, residents of a nearby village and rare hunters). The flight of an unknown object was accompanied by a strange rumble. Soon there was a powerful explosion, from which glass flew out even in houses located hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter.

The blast wave 2 times (!) Bypassed the globe, it was recorded by weather stations and observatories in various countries. A glow was observed in the sky over the whole of Central Siberia for several days after this event. The consequences of the explosion (according to the calculations of scientists that occurred at an altitude of about 8 km) turned out to be terrifying: on an area of ​​​​more than 2 thousand km², trees were uprooted and felled, at a distance of up to 40 km many forest animals died (they say that people suffered), a strong magnetic storm.

The power of the explosion of the Tunguska miracle, given the impressive impact on the taiga massif, scientists estimate at about 40-50 megatons – this effect gives a powerful hydrogen bomb. In theory, in this case, an impressive crater should remain (at least half a kilometer deep), which, nevertheless, has not been discovered by anyone to this day. But the strangest thing is that not a single scientific expedition to this day has found the slightest fragment of the meteorite itself. (By the way, the first of them – the expedition of Leonid Alekseevich Kulik – was able to get to the alleged crash site in the area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River only in 1927, that is, 19 years after the phenomenon itself!). The only thing that was found in the soil and in the wood of fallen trees was microscopic magnetite and silicate balls, which are probably not terrestrial and not quite natural in origin.

Then what was it? There are many versions (up to this one: it was the famous Nikola Tesla who conducted some kind of experiment with electricity, but since he was aware of the danger of the event, he carried it out where people could hardly suffer), but still the main one was meteorite, it just crumbled into very small (dusty) fragments.