Meteorite explosions in the skies of Russia’s Urals region has sparked panic in three major cities. Witnesses said that houses shuddered, windows were blown out and cellphones stopped working.
A meteor — estimated to be about 10 tons — entered the Earth’s atmosphere about 9:20 a.m. Russian local time at a speed of at least 33,000 mph and shattered at an altitude estimated at 18-32 miles above the ground.
In Chelyabinsk, 985 people in the city asked for medical assistance — 43 were hospitalized. It is estimated over one million square feet of glass has been shattered in the city. Most of the injuries were caused by shattered glass. A roof collapsed at a zinc commercial plant.
Chelyabinsk is about 930 miles east of Moscow.
Meteor exploding in the skies is quite an unusual wakeup call – many people in the Russian Urals region woke up to this sight on Friday morning. The powerful blast smashed windows and rattled houses, causing widespread panic.
The February 14, 2013 meteor hit less than a day before the asteroid 2012 DA14 is forecast to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid to the Earth (17,150 miles). 20125 DA14 was discovered only a year ago (February 23, 2012) by a Spanish dentist and amateur astronomer Jaime Nomen. NASA has stressed that ‘no Earth impact is possible’ but with some communications satellites out about 22,236 miles above the earth’s surface,
Unbelievably spectacular smoke trail from meteor over Ural mountain region in Russia, and terrifying boom — either sonic boom or impact and shockwave boom.
Multiple videos show a cloud trail, followed by a large boom, and then multiple smaller booms — setting off car alarms.
Another video showing trail and multiple explosions.
Wow! That’s crazy!