Interesting Impact Falls

www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/meteorites.html

International Comet Quarterly

Some interesting meteorite falls of the last two centuries

Records in the past century indicate that roughly one impact of a meteorite fall per year is found to hit a human-built structure, often causing some minor damage; there are thus many more meteorites hitting human structures per year, with Halliday et al. (1985, *Nature* *318*, p. 317) estimating that roughly sixteen buildings per year in the world would receive some damage, and that a person would be expected to be struck about once every nine years on average -- a number suggesting (along with quite a large number of reported animal deaths due to meteorite falls over the millennia) that reports of human deaths (see list below) are indeed likely to be true in at least some historical cases. The most recent purported human death attributed to a meteorite fall, announced in the New York Times, occurred on 1929 Nov. 20, when one person in a carriage of a bridal party in Zvezvan, Yugoslavia, was reportedly killed (and another injured) after being hit by a 40-cm meteorite. While no meteorite has been found, the famous Tunguska fireball air blast of 1908 June 30 over Siberia knocked several people off their feet, hurled one person several meters through the air, killed a herd of reindeer, and demolished the forest with trees blown down radially outward from the center of the blast for 2150 square km (Brown 1973; Steele 1995, 2000)-- and it can easily be surmised that a few nomadic people in the sparsely-populated area may have been killed. [Note: an html version of this page can be accessed at this link]


DATE LOCATION REMARKS REFERENCES
1807 12 14 Weston, CT, U.S.A. meteor visible half a minute, [21]
loud sounds heard, many stones
found scattered over 6-10
miles, weighing as much as
200 lbs. total (largest
meteorite weighed 35 lbs)

1825 01 16 Oriang, Malwate, man killed, woman injured in [14, 17,
India meteorite fall [considered 25]
"possible" by LaPaz (1958)]

1827 02 16 Mhow, India man wounded "severely in the [12, 17,
arm" when hit by meteorite 25]

1836 11 11 Macau, Brazil cattle killed when hit by [12, 17,
shower of meteorites 25]
[considered "possible" by
LaPaz (1958)]

1844 12 01 Lo-shih Shan, eleven stones fell; wall and side [1]
An-chi, China wall and room of Li Wei-kung's
Temple damaged

1847 07 14 Hauptmannsdorf, 37-pound Braunau iron meteorite [12, 17,
Braunau, Bohemia smashed into a room, covering 25]
three children with ceiling
debris but not hurting them

1850 10 17 Tang village, near shiny black stone broke through [1]
T'ing-ch'eng, China roof of a house

1860 05 01 New Concord, OH, horse struck and killed by [12, 17,
USA meteorite 25]

1863 08 08 Pillistfer, Latvia 5.4-kg stony meteorite [25]
penetrated tile roof and
floor of building

1868 01 30 Pultusk, Poland meteorite shower of more than [12,
100,000 fragments; bright fireball 27]

1874 06 30 Chin-kuei Shan, huge stone fell from sky, crushed [1]
Ming-tung Li, China half a cottage, killing a child

1879 01 31 Dun-le-Poelier, France farmer reported killed by meteorite [26]

1879 Nov./Dec. Huang-hsiang, China many black stones rained down, [1]
damaging many houses; sulfur smell

1882 02 03 Mocs, Romania meteorite shower of thousands [12,
of fragments; bright fireball 27]

1890 05 02 Forest City, IA, USA meteorite shower of some 2000 [12,
fragments; one fragment fell into 27]
a pile of hay (no fire); bright
fireball seen

1893 09 02 Zabrodje, White 3-kg stony meteorite fell through [25]
Russia house roof

1906 11 04 Constantia, South 1-kg stony meteorite smashed [25]
Africa through roof and ceiling
(2-pound piece recovered)

1907 09 05 Hsin-p-ai Wei, meteorite caused a house to [1]
Weng-li, China collapse, killing a family

1908 06 30 Tunguska, Siberia apparent airblast (no recovered [15,
meteorites) of an object entering 26,
earth's atmosphere; leveled 27]
hundreds of square miles of forest,
killing hundreds of reindeer;
unverified two people killed

1911 06 16 Kilbourn, WI, USA 772-gm stony meteorite passed [25]
through roof and floorboard of
barn, penetrated 2.5 inches into
clay floor

1911 06 28 Nakhla, Egypt dog struck and killed by [12, 17,
meteorite (part of meteorite 25]
shower)

1912 07 19 Holbrook, AZ, USA meteorite shower of more than [12, 13]
14000 fragments; meteorite
fell a few meters from a person;
largest fragment 9 pounds

1915 04 25 Ta-yang, east of meteorite tore off a woman's [1]
Mai-po, China arm; several meteorites, ranging
from about 2 to about 3.5 kg

1916 01 18 Baxter, MO, USA 611-gm stony meteorite [25]
penetrated roof of house

1921 12 31 Beyrout, Syria 1.1-kg stony meteorite fell [25]
through hut roof

1924 07 06 Johnstown, CO, USA meteorites fell within a few feet [13]
of two men; 50-pound stone went
5 feet into wet soil

1927 04 28 Aba-mura, Inashiki- young girl suffered two head [16, 25]
gun, Ibaragi-ken, injuries when struck by a
Japan stony meteorite

1929 11 20 Zvezvan, Yugoslavia man riding in a carriage in [28]
a wedding party was killed when
hit by a 40-cm meteorite; a
woman sitting opposite him
was badly injured; "meteor ...
was glowing hot"

1932 08 10 Archie, MO, USA meteorite fell less than 1 m [12, 13]
from person

1936 04 02 Yurtuk, Ukraine 2-kg stony meteorite smashed [25]
hole in roof of house

1938 03 31 Kasamatsu, Japan 721-gm stony meteorite [25]
penetrated house roof, landed
on floor

1938 06 16 Pantar, Philippines numerous buildings hit by [12, 25]
thousands of meteorites "as
big as corn and rice grains"

1938 06 24 Chicora, PA, USA cow's hide injured, presumably [17, 25,
by a fragment belonging to the 27]
meteorite shower in that area
on that day; bright fireball seen

1938 09 29 Benld, IL, USA building and car hit by stony [12, 13,
meteorites; the car was hit by 25]
a 4-pound fragment after it
crashed through the roof of a
garage, then through roof, seat,
and floorboards of car

1947 02 12 Sikhote-Alin, south- largest meteorite shower on [2, 27]
eastern Siberia record; estimated 100 tons of
total debris fell, the largest
weighing 1745 kg; some 9000
fragments weighing about 28
tons recovered; largest crater
28 m wide; bright fireball

1949 09 21 Beddgelert, N. Wales 794-gm stony meteorite broke [25]
through roof and fell into
hotel room

1950 09 20 Murray, KY, USA five buildings hit by meteorites; [12,
bright fireball seen 27]

1950 12 10 St. Louis, MO, USA car hit by meteorite [12]

1954 11 30 Sylacauga, AL, USA woman in home hit by meteorite [3, 12,
after breaking through roof 25]

1965 12 24 Barwell, England two buildings and a car hit by [12]
by meteorites

1971 04 08 Wethersfield, CT, 12-ounce meteorite entered house [4, 12]
USA through roof, lodged in living-
room ceiling; ordinary chondrite;
less than two miles away, another
house was hit 11.5 yr later

1976 03 08 Jilin City, Jilin, largest stony-meteorite shower [1, 12]
China in recent times; more than
100 fragments, the largest
being 1770 kg in weight and
making an impact crater 6 m deep;
H5 chondrite

1977 01 31 Louisville, KY, USA three buildings and a car hit by [12, 24]
meteorites

1982 11 08 Wethersfield, CT, meteorite entered house through [4, 12,
USA roof; second house hit in same 26]
town in 11.5 years; L6 chondrite

1984 09 30 Binningup, WA, meteorite fell 4-5 m from two [12]
Australia sunbathers on soft beach sand

1984 12 10 Claxton, GA, USA mailbox hit by meteorite [12]

1986 07 29 Kokubunji, Japan several buildings hit by meteorites [12]

1991 08 31 Noblesville, IN, USA meteorite fell 3.5 m from two [5]
children outside; ordinary
stony chondrite

1992 08 14 Mbale, Uganda meteorite shower; boy hit on [6]
head by 3.6-g fragment after
it hit tree first

1992 10 09 Peekskill, NY, USA car hit by meteorite, which [7]
passed through steel trunk
and impacted ground underneath;
fireball widely visible and
imaged along east coast

1992 12 10 Mihonoseki, Honshu, 6.5-kg L6 ordinary chondrite [10]
Japan meteorite crashed through house
to ground

1994 06 14 St-Robert, QC, meteorite shower caused sonic [8]
Canada boom in Montreal; scattered
strewnfield in rural area;
more than 25 kg recovered;
H5 chondrite

1994 06 21 near Getafe, Spain 12-cm-wide, 1.4-kg meteorite [11]
broke windshield and bent
steering wheel of moving car,
breaking finger of driver;
more than 50 kg of meteorites
found within 200 m of accident

2003 03 26 Chicago, IL, USA meteorite shower; buildings [9]
hit in Park Forest, IL;
ordinary chondrites

2003 09 27 Mayurbhanj, bright fireball(s) lit up sky just [18]
Orissa, India after sunset; widely observed
meteorite shower yielding
numerous highly magnetic meteorites

2004 06 12 Ellerslie, suburban 1.3-kg (2.8-lb) 7-cm x 13-cm [19]
Auckland, N.Z. meteorite broke through roof of
house and bounced off sofa

2007 09 15 Carancas, Peru 13.5-m-diameter crater created by [22]
(near Lake Titicaca mid-day visible fireball
at alt. 3824 m) meteorite, numerous ordinary
chondrites H4-5 recovered;
made international news when
local people complained of
illness -- not yet definitively
explained

2008 10 06 Nubian desert, 47 meteorites weighing 3.95 kg [23]
northern Sudan were found in Dec. 2008 via a
(Almahata Sitta) systematic search along the
suspected debris path for the
small minor planet 2008 TC3,
discovered 20 hours prior to
impact by R. A. Kowalski with the
1.5-m telescope at Mt. Lemmon in
Arizona, when it was about 370000
miles from the earth; a bright
fireball was seen by airline
pilots and orbiting satellites
when the object entered the
earth's atmosphere; the largest
recovered meteorite weights 1.5 g
(classified as a polymict ureilite,
an achondrite)

2013 02 15 near Chelyabinsk, extremely bright fireball [20]
south-central Russia (apparent brightness rivalling
that of the apparent brightness
of the sun) entered atmosphere
over Alaska and moving westward
toward Chelyabinsk, near its
termination point shortly before
sunrise, creating a huge airblast
shock that damaged thousands of
buildings in Chelyabinsk (mostly
broken glass) and injuring more
than 1000 people; apparently
meteorites were found in water
under a large circular broken-
ice feature found soon after the
event

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REFERENCES
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[1] Yau et al. (1994), Meteoritics 29, 864

[2] Fessenkov (1955), "Sikhote-Aline Meteorite", in Meteors (ed. by T. R. Kaiser, Pergamon Press, London), p. 179; Gallant (1997), Sky Telesc. 93(2), 50; website with info

[3] Swindel and Jones (1954), Meteoritics 1, 125

[4] di Cicco (1983), Sky Telesc. 65, 118;

[5] Sky Telesc. 83, 372 (April 1992)

[6] website with info; Jenniskens et al. (1994), Meteoritics 29, 246; Sky & Telescope, June 1993, p. 96

[7] Brown et al. (1994), Nature 367, 624; di Cicco (1993), Sky Telesc. 85(2), 26

[8] Brown et al. (1996), Meteoritics & Planetary Sci. 31, 502; Hildebrand et al. (1997), J. Roy. Astron. Soc. Canada 91, 261

[9] www.fmnh.org/research_collections/geology/meteor.htm

[10] Sky Telesc. 86(2), 13 (Aug. 1993)

[11] Sky Telesc. 88(6), 12 (Dec. 1994)

[12] Spratt and Stephens (1992), Mercury, Mar./Apr. 1992, p. 50; Spratt (1991), JRASC 85, 263

[13] Nininger (1952), Out of the Sky: An Introduction to Meteorites, Univ. of Denver Press

[14] Gritzner (1997), WGN 25, 222

[15] Sekanina (1983), A.J. 88, 1382; Melosh (1993), Nature 361, 14; Lyne and Tauber (1995) Nature 375, 638; Sekanina (1998), Planet. Space Sci. 46, 191; Bronshten (2000), Planet. Space Sci. 48, 855; Hou et al. (2000), Planet. Space Sci. 48, 1447; P. L. Brown (1973), Comets, Meteorites and Men (New York, NY: Taplinger Publ. Co.), pp. 192-197; D. Steel (1995), Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets (New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons), pp. 173-176; D. Steel (2000), Target Earth (Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest), pp. 86-87.

[16] Yamamoto and Murayama (1951), Pop. Astron. 59, 431, 432

[17] LaPaz (1951), Pop. Astron. 59, 433

[18] CCNet reports

[19] Aug. 2004 issue of Meteorite, article by Brenda Archer; Summer 2005 issue of Inside Smithsonian Research (No. 9, p. 16), article by John Barrat; video of the aftermath; also numerous WWW news articles, such as www.geo-earth.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t2490.html (do a Google search with +"Brenda Archer" +meteorite).

[20] See this webpage. With standard caution, see the the Wikipedia article on this event. Information has been compiled at this website.

[21] Elements of Astronomy, Descriptive and Physics, by Hervey Wilbur (1839, New York: Scofield and Voorhies; and Boston: Whipple and Damrell), pp. 106-107.

[22] J. Borovicka and P. Spurny (2008), Astron. Astrophys. 485, L1; G. Tancredi et al. (2009), Meteoritics & Planetary Sci. 44, 1967. With standard caution, see also the Wikipedia article on this event.

[23] P. Jenniskens et al. (2009), Nature 458, 485-488 (26 March).

[24] A. L. Graham and R. S. Clarke, Jr., eds. (1978), "The Meteoritical Bulletin" No. 55, in Meteoritics 13, 341.

[25] L. LaPaz (1958), "The Effects of Meteorites Upon the Earth", Adv. in Geophys. 4, 217ff.

[26] J. S. Lewis (1996), Rain of Iron and Ice (New York, NY: Addison Wesley Publishing Co.), pp. 162-182.

[27] A. V. Nielsen (1968), "Catalogue of Bright Meteors", Meddelelser fra Ole Romer-Observatoriet, No. 39 (Aarhus, Denmark).

[28] "Little Thing Like a Meteor Fails to Discourage Bride", New York Times, 1929 Dec. 8, page E1.

Catalogue of meteorites available on the WWW: National History Museum, London, 2000 catalogue is online.

See also the Wikipedia list

Cometary Science Center/Archive