Chelyabinsk meteorite (Chebarkul meteorite), Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russiai

Regional Level Types
Chelyabinsk meteorite (Chebarkul meteorite)	Meteorite Fall Location
Chelyabinsk Oblast	Oblast
Russia	Country

Ordinary chondrite, veins (LL5, S4, W0)
Fell, 15 Feb 2013; 1 ton

An unusual bright fireball appeared at 9:22 local time and was accompanied by an air burst and loud detonations destroying many windows in Chelyabinsk and other nearby regions. A few buildings were struck by small stones and a number of people were wounded by falling glass. Thousands of small and intermediate-size stones, usually with fusion crusts, have been recovered over a 40 km long strewn field which was largely covered with snow at the time of impact. A very large stone formed a 7 m hole in Cherbarkul Lake and resulted in the eventual recovery of a 540 kg mass and 7 other smaller fragments. The overall mass recovered over the entire strewn field appears to be well over the formally listed one ton. Fragments recovered at later dates will not always be as unweathered as the first recovered fragments.

Most of the meteorite's mass is that of a moderately well-shocked ordinary chondrite with glass, veins, and a complicated isotopic profile due to multiple impact events over the last 4 billion years. Olivine and pyroxenes constitute most of the meteorite's mass and volume with attendant Fe-Ni metal, troilite, plagioclase feldspar, and a number of minor accessory phases. As of late November 2015 the Chelyabinsk meteorite represents the most massive of 19 LL5 falls listed at the Meteoritical Bulletin Database.

Nota Bene: 'Chelyabinsk' is the formal name of the meteorite as listed at the Meteoritical Bulletin Database. The Cherbarkul Lake fragment is, of course, a quite singular portion of the overall mass.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References