It's a wonder that thousands of people weren't killed. It must have been a terrifying experience. Sure makes me want to re-think mankind's significance in the overall scheme of things...
Meanwhile in Russa
- Thread starter hemet dennis
- Start date
It seems that it could have been much worse.
This from the BBC News website:
16 February 2013 Last updated at 00:26 GMT
Russia sends clean-up team to meteorite-hit Urals
A 20,000-strong team has been sent to the Ural mountains as part of a rescue and clean-up operation after Friday's meteor strike, Russia's emergency, ministry says.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the operation to help some 1,200 people who were injured, including 200 children, mostly by shattered glass.
The shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings around Chelyabinsk.
A fireball streaked through the clear morning sky, followed by loud bangs.
A large meteorite landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a town in Chelyabinsk region, and Friday morning's dramatic passage was witnessed hundreds of kilometres away.
“Start Quote
Mr Putin said he thanked God that no big fragments of the 10-tonne meteor - which was thought to be made of iron and travelling at some 30 km (19 miles) per second - had fallen in populated areas.
It had entered the Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (20-30 miles) above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences, releasing several kilotonnes of energy - the equivalent of a small atomic weapon.
The Emergencies Ministry urged calm, saying background radiation levels were normal after what it described as a "meteorite shower in the form of fireballs".
"The explosion was so strong that some windows in our building and in the buildings that are across the road and in the city in general, the windows broke," Chelyabinsk resident Polina Zolotarevskaya told BBC News.
The Chelyabinsk region, about 1,500km east of Moscow, is home to many factories, a nuclear power plant and the Mayak atomic waste storage and treatment centre.
Asteroids, meteors and meteorites
Video posted online showed frightened, screaming youngsters at one Chelyabinsk school, where corridors were littered with broken glass.
Chelyabinsk resident Sergei Serskov told BBC News the city had felt like a "war zone" for 20 to 30 minutes.
"I was in the office when suddenly I saw a really bright flash in the window in front of me," he said.
Footage shows an icy lake near Chebarkul, where police say part of the meteor landed
"Then I smelt fumes. I looked out the window and saw a huge line of smoke, like you get from a plane but many times bigger."
"A few minutes later the window suddenly came open and there was a huge explosion, followed by lots of little explosions."
Debris also reportedly fell on the west Siberian region of Tyumen.
Governor Yurevich reported that a meteorite had landed in a lake 1km outside Chebarkul, which has a population of 46,000.
A Russian army spokesman said a crater 6m (20ft) wide had been found on the shore of the lake.
Scientists have played down suggestions that there is any link between the event in the Urals and 2012 DA14, an asteroid which raced past the Earth later on Friday at a distance of just 27,700km (17,200 miles) - the closest ever for an object of that size.
Such meteor strikes are rare in Russia but one is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000 sq km (770 sq m) in Siberia in 1908.
This from the BBC News website:
16 February 2013 Last updated at 00:26 GMT
Russia sends clean-up team to meteorite-hit Urals
A 20,000-strong team has been sent to the Ural mountains as part of a rescue and clean-up operation after Friday's meteor strike, Russia's emergency, ministry says.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the operation to help some 1,200 people who were injured, including 200 children, mostly by shattered glass.
The shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings around Chelyabinsk.
A fireball streaked through the clear morning sky, followed by loud bangs.
A large meteorite landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a town in Chelyabinsk region, and Friday morning's dramatic passage was witnessed hundreds of kilometres away.
“Start Quote
A huge line of smoke, like you get from a plane but many times bigger”
Sergei Serskov Chelyabinsk resident.Mr Putin said he thanked God that no big fragments of the 10-tonne meteor - which was thought to be made of iron and travelling at some 30 km (19 miles) per second - had fallen in populated areas.
It had entered the Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (20-30 miles) above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences, releasing several kilotonnes of energy - the equivalent of a small atomic weapon.
The Emergencies Ministry urged calm, saying background radiation levels were normal after what it described as a "meteorite shower in the form of fireballs".
"The explosion was so strong that some windows in our building and in the buildings that are across the road and in the city in general, the windows broke," Chelyabinsk resident Polina Zolotarevskaya told BBC News.
The Chelyabinsk region, about 1,500km east of Moscow, is home to many factories, a nuclear power plant and the Mayak atomic waste storage and treatment centre.
Asteroids, meteors and meteorites
- Asteroids are small bodies that orbit the Sun as the Earth does
- Larger asteroids are called planetoids or minor planets, smaller ones often called meteoroids
- Once any of these enters our planet's atmosphere, it becomes a meteor
- Many meteors break into pieces or burn up entirely as they speed through the atmosphere
- Once meteors or fragments actually hits the earth, they become meteorites
Video posted online showed frightened, screaming youngsters at one Chelyabinsk school, where corridors were littered with broken glass.
Chelyabinsk resident Sergei Serskov told BBC News the city had felt like a "war zone" for 20 to 30 minutes.
"I was in the office when suddenly I saw a really bright flash in the window in front of me," he said.
Footage shows an icy lake near Chebarkul, where police say part of the meteor landed
"Then I smelt fumes. I looked out the window and saw a huge line of smoke, like you get from a plane but many times bigger."
"A few minutes later the window suddenly came open and there was a huge explosion, followed by lots of little explosions."
Debris also reportedly fell on the west Siberian region of Tyumen.
Governor Yurevich reported that a meteorite had landed in a lake 1km outside Chebarkul, which has a population of 46,000.
A Russian army spokesman said a crater 6m (20ft) wide had been found on the shore of the lake.
Scientists have played down suggestions that there is any link between the event in the Urals and 2012 DA14, an asteroid which raced past the Earth later on Friday at a distance of just 27,700km (17,200 miles) - the closest ever for an object of that size.
Such meteor strikes are rare in Russia but one is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000 sq km (770 sq m) in Siberia in 1908.
Last edited:
Not much we can do about this one eh?
- Jan 16, 2013
- 20
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- 23
It's paranoia fuel is what it is. Just think: out of absolutely nowhere, a giant chunk of rock could come shrieking into the atmosphere at 30,000 miles per hour with zero warning, and then blow up in the middle of a major city - or right above your head.
Thank goodness our atmosphere burns these things up.
Thank goodness no one reached for the RED PHONE. My first thought would have been that North Korea or Iran would have fired on us. Thankfully more were not injured in Russia. That has to be one of the most terrifying things to spontaneously occur.
Like the weather men always say "stay away from windows."
- Thread starter
- #16
Thank goodness no one reached for the RED PHONE. My first thought would have been that North Korea or Iran would have fired on us. Thankfully more were not injured in Russia. That has to be one of the most terrifying things to spontaneously occur.Like the weather men always say "stay away from windows."
Yep most of the people were injured by glass so their doing the smart thing and outlawing glass.
Why are people making jokes about this? People have been injured, one seriously. and property damaged. Imagine it happened in your home town.
not funny
Or limit less than 10 meteor strikes per country.Yep most of the people were injured by glass so their doing the smart thing and outlawing glass.
Because this is the stuff of nightmares, and since time immemorial, one of the ways people deal with fear and confusion is to laugh at it. It's a form of gallows humor.
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