Our planet is subjected to real cosmic bombardments every day. Hundreds of small and not very meteorites attack the Earth, fortunately burning up in the atmosphere. Only a few manage to reach the surface, while maintaining a significant size.
Today we propose to consider Top 10 largest meteorites that have fallen to Earth since the beginning of the 20th century. We did not include in the top ten huge cosmic bodies that left scars on the face of the planet millions of years ago.
Today, where those meteors fell, there are craters, often turned into lakes, for example, Mistastin Lake in Canada and the 45-kilometer Karakul Lake in Tajikistan.
10. Sutter Mill meteorite, April 22, 2012
A meteorite flew through the sky over the United States and exploded right over Washington. The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT. Lots of fragments different sizes enthusiasts found not only in Washington, but also in the states of Nevada and California.
9. A meteorite that fell in China February 11, 2012
On the night of February 11, the sky over China was lit up with hundreds of meteor shower lights. Space bodies covered an area of 100 square kilometers. The largest meteorite ever found weighed 12.6 kg.
8. Peruvian meteorite, September 15, 2007
This meteorite fell in broad daylight near Lake Titicaca. A crater 6 meters deep and 30 meters in diameter formed at the crash site. Shortly after the fall, more than 1,500 people reported experiencing severe headaches.
7. Meteorite Kunya-Urgench, Turkmenistan, June 20, 1998
A huge meteorite fell at night near the city of Kunya-Urgench. The largest fragment weighed 820 kg, and scientists determined its age at around 4 billion years.
6. Sterlitamak meteorite, May 17, 1990
A large meteorite weighing 315 kg left a crater with a diameter of more than 10 meters at the site of impact. The space guest was placed in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the Ufa Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where everyone can admire him.
5. Jilin meteorite. China, March 8, 1976
One of the largest meteorites found fell to Earth during a powerful meteor shower. Its weight was 1.7 tons. Simultaneously with this giant, thousands of smaller cosmic bodies were burning in the sky for 37 minutes.
4. Sikhote-Alin meteorite, Russia, Far East, February 12, 1947
This huge meteorite exploded in the atmosphere, and its fragments formed more than 30 craters on the Earth's surface from 7 to 28 m to 6 meters deep. Scientists have collected about 27 tons of fragments of various sizes, which makes it possible to judge the significant size of the meteorite.
3. Goba meteorite, Namibia, 1920
This meteorite flew to earth about 20 thousand years ago, but was found only in 1920. The stone weighs over 60 tons. Moreover, scientists say that in the time that has passed since its fall, the meteorite has “lost weight” due to erosion and the actions of vandals.
2. Chelyabinsk meteorite, February 15, 2013
This meteorite, of course, is not the largest, but one of the most famous. Space bodies rarely fall in the area of large settlements, as happened in Chelyabinsk. Before the explosion, the meteorite weighed about 10 thousand tons and had a diameter of 17 meters. According to NASA, this particular meteorite is the largest since the legendary Tunguska meteorite.
1. Tunguska meteorite, June 30, 1908
Scientists do not know the mass of the most famous meteorite, naming only its limits - from 100 thousand to 1 million tons. blast wave from a meteorite that exploded over the taiga, it circled the globe twice. As a result, trees were felled on an area of more than 2 thousand square meters. km, and in houses a hundred kilometers from the explosion, windows flew out. The glow in the sky over the taiga persisted for several days.
Bonus video:
Hard ice, gas ice, baked ice!
In a previous post, an assessment of the danger of an asteroid threat from space was given. And here we will consider what will happen if (when) a meteorite of one size or another still falls to Earth.
The scenario and consequences of such an event as a fall to the Earth of a cosmic body, of course, depends on many factors. We list the main ones:
Space body size
This factor, of course, is paramount. Armageddon on our planet can arrange a meteorite 20 kilometers in size, so in this post we will consider scenarios for the fall of cosmic bodies on the planet ranging in size from a grain of dust to 15-20 km. More - it makes no sense, since in this case the scenario will be simple and obvious.
Composition
Small bodies solar system may have different composition and density. Therefore, there is a difference whether a stone or iron meteorite falls to the Earth, or a loose comet nucleus consisting of ice and snow. Accordingly, in order to inflict the same damage, the comet nucleus must be two to three times larger than the asteroid fragment (at the same fall velocity).
For reference: more than 90 percent of all meteorites are stone.
Speed
Also a very important factor in the collision of bodies. After all, here there is a transition of the kinetic energy of motion into thermal energy. And the speed of entry of cosmic bodies into the atmosphere can vary significantly (from about 12 km / s to 73 km / s, for comets - even more).
The slowest meteorites are those that are catching up with the Earth or being overtaken by it. Accordingly, those flying towards us will add their speed to the orbital speed of the Earth, will pass through the atmosphere much faster, and the explosion from their impact on the surface will be many times more powerful.
Where will it fall
At sea or on land. It is difficult to say in which case the destruction will be greater, everything will just be different.
A meteorite may fall on a nuclear weapons storage site or on a nuclear power plant, then the harm to the environment may be more from radioactive contamination than from a meteorite impact (if it was relatively small).
Angle of incidence
Doesn't play a big role. At those huge speeds at which the cosmic body crashes into the planet, it does not matter at what angle it falls, since in any case the kinetic energy of motion will turn into heat and be released in the form of an explosion. This energy does not depend on the angle of incidence, but only on mass and velocity. Therefore, by the way, all craters (on the Moon, for example) have a circular shape, and there are absolutely no craters in the form of some trenches drilled at an acute angle.
How do bodies of different diameters behave when they fall to the Earth
Up to several centimeters
They burn up completely in the atmosphere, leaving a bright trail several tens of kilometers long (a well-known phenomenon called meteor). The largest of them reach heights of 40-60 km, but most of these "dust particles" burn out at an altitude of more than 80 km. 
A massive phenomenon - within just 1 hour, millions (!!) of meteors flare up in the atmosphere. But, taking into account the brightness of the flares and the radius of the observer's view, at night in one hour you can see from a few to dozens of meteors (during meteor showers - more than a hundred). During the day, the mass of dust from meteors that has settled on the surface of our planet is estimated in hundreds, and even thousands of tons.
From centimeters to several meters
Fireballs- the brightest meteors, the brightness of the flash of which exceeds the brightness of the planet Venus. The flash may be accompanied by noise effects up to the sound of an explosion. After that, a smoky trail is left in the sky.
Fragments of cosmic bodies of this size reach the surface of our planet. It happens like this:
At the same time, stone meteoroids, and especially icy ones, are usually crushed into fragments from the explosion and heating. Metal can withstand pressure and fall to the surface entirely:
Iron meteorite "Goba" about 3 meters in size, which fell "entirely" 80 thousand years ago on the territory of modern Namibia (Africa) If the entry velocity into the atmosphere was very high (oncoming trajectory), then such meteoroids are much less likely to reach the surface, since the force of their friction against the atmosphere will be much greater. The number of fragments into which the meteoroid breaks up can reach hundreds of thousands, the process of their fall is called meteor Rain.
Several tens of small (about 100 grams) fragments of meteorites can fall to Earth in the form of cosmic precipitation per day. Given that most of them fall into the ocean, and in general, they are difficult to distinguish from ordinary stones, they are quite rare to find.
The number of entries into our atmosphere of cosmic bodies about a meter in size is several times a year. If you are lucky, and the fall of such a body will be noticed, there is a chance to find decent fragments weighing hundreds of grams, or even kilograms.
17 meters - Chelyabinsk fireball
Superbolide- this is sometimes called especially powerful explosions of meteoroids, like the one that exploded in February 2013 over Chelyabinsk. According to various expert estimates, the initial size of the body that entered the atmosphere then varies, on average it is estimated at 17 meters. Weight - about 10,000 tons. 
The object entered the Earth's atmosphere at a very sharp angle (15-20°) at a speed of about 20 km/sec. It exploded in half a minute at an altitude of about 20 km. The power of the explosion was several hundred kilotons of TNT. This is 20 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, but here the consequences were not so fatal because the explosion occurred at a high altitude and the energy was scattered over a large area, largely far from settlements.
Less than a tenth of the initial mass of the meteoroid reached the Earth, that is, about a ton or less. The fragments scattered over an area more than 100 km long and about 20 km wide. Many small fragments were found, several weighing kilograms, the largest piece weighing 650 kg was raised from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul: 
Damage: almost 5,000 buildings were damaged (mostly broken glass and frames), about 1.5 thousand people were injured by glass fragments. 
A body of this size could easily reach the surface without falling apart into fragments. This did not happen due to the too acute angle of entry, because before exploding, the meteoroid flew several hundred kilometers in the atmosphere. If the Chelyabinsk meteoroid had fallen vertically, then instead of an air shock wave breaking the glass, there would have been a powerful impact on the surface, resulting in a seismic shock, with the formation of a crater with a diameter of 200-300 meters. About the damage and the number of victims, in this case, judge for yourself, everything would depend on the place of the fall.
Concerning repetition rate of similar events, then after the Tunguska meteorite of 1908, this is the largest celestial body that fell to Earth. That is, one or more such guests from outer space can be expected in one century.
Tens of meters are small asteroids
Children's toys are over, let's move on to more serious things.
If you read the previous post, then you know that the small bodies of the solar system up to 30 meters in size are called meteoroids, more than 30 meters - asteroids.
If an asteroid, even the smallest one, meets the Earth, then it will definitely not fall apart in the atmosphere and its speed will not slow down to the speed of free fall, as happens with meteoroids. All the huge energy of its movement will be released in the form of an explosion - that is, it will turn into thermal energy, which will melt the asteroid itself, and mechanical, which will create a crater, scatter earth rock and fragments of the asteroid itself around, and also create a seismic wave.
To quantify the magnitude of such a phenomenon, consider an asteroid crater in Arizona as an example: 
This crater was formed 50 thousand years ago from the impact of an iron asteroid with a diameter of 50-60 meters. The force of the explosion was 8000 Hiroshima, the diameter of the crater is 1.2 km, the depth is 200 meters, the edges rise above the surrounding surface by 40 meters.
Another event comparable in scale is the Tunguska meteorite. The power of the explosion was 3000 Hiroshima, but here there was a fall of a small comet nucleus with a diameter of tens to hundreds of meters, according to various estimates. Comet nuclei are often compared to dirty snow cakes, so in this case no crater appeared, the comet exploded in the air and evaporated, knocking down a forest over an area of 2 thousand square kilometers. If the same comet exploded over the center of modern Moscow, it would destroy all the houses up to the ring road.
Fall frequency asteroids tens of meters in size - once every few centuries, hundred meters - once every several thousand years.
300 meters - Apophis asteroid (the most dangerous known at the moment)
Although, according to the latest data from NASA, the probability of the Apophis asteroid hitting the Earth during its passage near our planet in 2029 and then in 2036 is almost zero, we will still consider the scenario of the consequences of its possible fall, since there are many asteroids that have not yet been discovered, and such an event can still happen, not this time, but another time.
So .. the asteroid Apophis, contrary to all forecasts, falls to Earth ..
The power of the explosion is 15,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. When it hits the mainland, an impact crater appears with a diameter of 4-5 km and a depth of 400-500 meters, the shock wave demolishes all brick buildings in a zone with a radius of 50 km, less durable buildings, as well as trees fall at a distance of 100-150 kilometers from the place fall. A column of dust rises into the sky, similar to a mushroom from a nuclear explosion several kilometers high, then the dust begins to spread in different directions, and spreads evenly over the entire planet for several days. 
But, despite the greatly exaggerated horror stories that the media usually scare people with, nuclear winter and the end of the world will not come - the caliber of Apophis is not enough for this. According to the experience of powerful volcanic eruptions that took place in a not very long history, in which huge emissions of dust and ash into the atmosphere also occur, with such an explosion power, the effect of “nuclear winter” will be small - a drop in the average temperature on the planet by 1-2 degrees, through six months to a year everything returns to its place.
That is, this is not a catastrophe of a global, but a regional scale - if Apophis gets into a small country, he will completely destroy it.
When Apophis enters the ocean, coastal areas will suffer from the tsunami. The height of the tsunami will depend on the distance to the place of impact - the initial wave will have a height of about 500 meters, but if Apophis falls into the center of the ocean, then 10-20-meter waves will reach the coast, which is also quite a lot, and the storm lasts with such mega- waves will be several hours. If the impact into the ocean occurs near the coast, then surfers in coastal (and not only) cities will be able to ride such a wave: (sorry for the dark humor) 
Recurrence frequency events of this magnitude in the history of the Earth is measured in tens of thousands of years.
Let's move on to global catastrophes ..
1 kilometer
The scenario is the same as during the fall of Apophis, only the scale of the consequences is many times more serious and already reaches the global catastrophe of the low threshold (the consequences are felt by all mankind, but there is no threat of the death of civilization):
The power of the explosion in "Hiroshima": 50,000, the size of the crater formed when it fell to land: 15-20 km. The radius of the destruction zone from the explosive and seismic waves: up to 1000 km.
When falling into the ocean, again, it all depends on the distance to the coast, since the resulting waves will be very high (1-2 km), but not long, and such waves fade rather quickly. But in any case, the area of flooded territories will be huge - millions of square kilometers.
The decrease in the transparency of the atmosphere in this case from emissions of dust and ash (or water vapor falling into the ocean) will be noticeable over several years. If you enter a seismically dangerous zone, the consequences can be aggravated by earthquakes provoked by the explosion.
However, an asteroid of this diameter will not be able to noticeably tilt the earth's axis or affect the period of rotation of our planet.
Despite not all the drama of this scenario, for the Earth this is a rather ordinary event, since it has already happened thousands of times throughout its existence. Average repetition frequency- once every 200-300 thousand years.
An asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers is a global catastrophe on a planetary scale
- The power of the explosion in "Hiroshima": 50 million
- The size of the crater formed when falling on land: 70-100 km, depth - 5-6 km.
- The depth of cracking of the earth's crust will be tens of kilometers, that is, up to the mantle (the thickness of the earth's crust under the plains is on average 35 km). Magma will come to the surface.
- The area of the destruction zone can be several percent of the Earth's area.
- During the explosion, a cloud of dust and molten rock will rise to a height of tens of kilometers, possibly up to a hundred. The volume of ejected materials - several thousand cubic kilometers - is enough for a light "asteroid autumn", but not enough for an "asteroid winter" and the beginning of an ice age.
- Secondary craters and tsunamis from fragments and large pieces of ejected rock.
- A small, but by geological standards, a decent tilt of the earth's axis from the impact - up to 1/10 of a degree.
- When it hits the ocean - a tsunami with kilometer-long (!!) waves that go far deep into the continents.
- In the case of intense eruptions of volcanic gases, acid rain is possible later.
But this is not quite Armageddon yet! Even such grandiose catastrophes our planet has already experienced dozens or even hundreds of times. On average, this happens one once every 100 million years. If this happened at the present time, the number of victims would be unprecedented, in the worst case it could be measured in billions of people, moreover, it is not known to what social upheaval it would lead. However, despite the period of acid rain and several years of some cooling due to a decrease in the transparency of the atmosphere, in 10 years the climate and the biosphere would have fully recovered.
Armageddon
For such a significant event in the history of mankind, an asteroid the size of 15-20 kilometers in the amount of 1 piece.
The next ice age will come, most of the living organisms will die, but life on the planet will continue, although it will no longer be the same as before. As always, the fittest will survive.
Such events have also happened more than once since the emergence of life on it, Armageddons have happened at least a few, and maybe dozens of times. It is believed that the last time this happened 65 million years ( Chicxulub meteorite), when dinosaurs and almost all other species of living organisms died, only 5% of the elect remained, including our ancestors. 
Full Armageddon
If a cosmic body the size of Texas crashes into our planet, as was the case in the famous film with Bruce Willis, then even bacteria will not survive (although, who knows?), life will have to arise and evolve anew. 
Output
I wanted to write a review post about meteorites, but the scenarios of Armageddon turned out. Therefore, I want to say that all the events described, starting with Apophis (inclusive), are considered as theoretically possible, since they will definitely not happen in the next hundred years at least. Why this is so is detailed in the previous post.
I also want to add that all the figures given here regarding the correspondence between the size of the meteorite and the consequences of its fall to Earth are very approximate. The data in different sources differ, plus the initial factors in the fall of an asteroid of the same diameter can vary greatly. For example, everywhere it is written that the size of the Chicxulub meteorite is 10 km, but in one, as it seemed to me, authoritative source, I read that a 10-kilometer stone could not do such troubles, so my Chicxulub meteorite entered the 15-20 km category .
So, if suddenly Apophis still falls in the 29th or 36th year, and the radius of the affected area will be very different from what is written here - write, I will correct
Our favorite blue planet is constantly hit by space debris, but due to the fact that most space objects burn up or fall apart in the atmosphere, this most often does not pose any serious problems. Even if some object reaches the surface of the planet, it is most often small, and the damage it causes is negligible.
However, of course, there are very rare cases when something very large flies through the atmosphere and in this case very significant damage is inflicted. Fortunately, such falls are extremely rare, but it is worth knowing about them at least in order to remember that there are forces in the Universe that can disrupt the everyday life of people in a couple of minutes. Where and when did these monsters fall to Earth? Let's turn to the geological records and find out:
10. Barringer Crater, Arizona, USA
Arizona apparently lacked the fact that they had the Grand Canyon, so about 50,000 years ago, another tourist attraction was added there when a 50-meter meteorite landed in the northern desert, which left behind a crater 1200 meters in diameter and deep at 180 meters. Scientists believe that the meteorite, as a result of which the crater was formed, flew at a speed of about 55 thousand kilometers per hour, and caused an explosion more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, about 150 times. Some scientists initially doubted that the crater was formed by a meteorite, since the meteorite itself is not there, however, according to modern ideas scientists, the stone simply melted during the explosion, spreading molten nickel and iron around the surrounding area.
Although its diameter is not that big, the lack of erosion makes it an impressive sight. What's more, it's one of the few meteorite craters that looks true to its origin, making it a top-notch tourist destination, just the way the universe wanted it to be.
9. Lake Bosumtwi Crater, Ghana 
When someone discovers a natural lake that is almost perfectly round, it's suspicious enough. That is what Lake Bosumtwi is, reaching about 10 kilometers in diameter, and located 30 kilometers southeast of Kumasi, Ghana. The crater was formed from a collision with a meteorite with a diameter of about 500 meters, which fell to Earth about 1.3 million years ago. Attempts to study the crater in detail are quite difficult, as the lake is difficult to reach, it is surrounded by dense forest, and the local Ashanti people consider it a holy place (they believe that it is forbidden to touch the water with iron or use metal boats, which is why getting to nickel at the bottom of the lake is problematic). Still, it's one of the best-preserved craters on the planet right now, and a good example of the destructive power of megarocks from space.
8. Mistastin Lake, Labrador, Canada 
The Mistatin Impact Crater, located in Canada's Labrador Province, is an impressive 17-by-11-kilometer depression in the earth that formed about 38 million years ago. The crater was likely originally much larger, but has shrunk over time due to the erosion it has undergone due to the many glaciers that have passed through Canada over the past million years. This crater is unique in that, unlike most impact craters, it is elliptical rather than round, indicating that the meteorite hit at an acute angle, rather than level like most meteorite impacts. Even more unusual is the fact that there is a small island in the middle of the lake, which may be the central rise of the complex structure of the crater.
7. Gosses Bluff, Northern Territory, Australia
This 142 million year old and 22 km diameter crater located in the center of Australia is an impressive sight both from the air and from the ground. The crater was formed as a result of the fall of an asteroid with a diameter of 22 kilometers, which crashed into the surface of the Earth at a speed of 65,000 kilometers per hour and formed a funnel almost 5 kilometers deep. The collision energy was about 10 to the twentieth power of Joules, so life on the continent faced great problems after this collision. The highly deformed crater is one of the most significant impact craters in the world and does not let us forget the power of a single large rock.
6. Clearwater Lakes, Quebec, Canada 
Finding one impact crater is cool, but finding two impact craters next to each other is doubly cool. This is exactly what happened when an asteroid broke in two as it entered Earth's atmosphere 290 million years ago, creating two impact craters on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. Since then, erosion and glaciers have severely destroyed the original craters, but what remains is still an impressive sight. The diameter of one lake is 36 kilometers, and the second is about 26 kilometers. Given that the craters formed 290 million years ago and were heavily eroded, one can only imagine how large they were originally.
5. Tunguska meteorite, Siberia, Russia
This is a controversial point, since no parts of the hypothetical meteorite remained, and what exactly fell into Siberia 105 years ago is not entirely clear. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that something large and moving at high speed exploded near the Tunguska River in June 1908, leaving behind fallen trees over an area of 2000 square kilometers. The explosion was so strong that it was recorded by instruments even in the UK.
Due to the fact that no pieces of the meteorite were found, some believe that the object may not have been a meteorite at all, but a small part of a comet (which, if true, explains the absence of meteorite fragments). Fans of conspiracies believe that an alien spaceship actually exploded here. Although this theory is completely unfounded and is clean water speculation, we have to admit that it sounds interesting.
4. Manicouagan Crater, Canada 
The Manicouagan Reservoir, also known as the Eye of Quebec, is located in a crater formed 212 million years ago when an asteroid 5 kilometers in diameter hit Earth. The 100-kilometer crater that was left after the fall was destroyed by glaciers and other erosive processes, but even at the moment it remains an impressive sight. What is unique about this crater is that nature did not fill it with water, forming an almost perfectly round lake - the crater basically remained land surrounded by a ring of water. A great place to build a castle here.
3. Sudbury Basin, Ontario, Canada 
Apparently, Canada and impact craters are very fond of each other. Singer Alanis Morrisette's hometown is a favorite place for meteorite impacts - the largest meteorite impact crater in Canada is located near Sudbury, Ontario. This crater is already 1.85 billion years old, and its dimensions are 65 kilometers long, 25 wide and 14 deep - 162 thousand people live here, and many mining enterprises are located, who discovered a century ago that the crater is very rich in nickel due to for the fallen asteroid. The crater is so rich in this element that about 10% of the world's nickel production is obtained here.
2. Chicxulub Crater, Mexico
Perhaps the fall of this meteorite caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, but this is definitely the most powerful collision with an asteroid in the entire history of the Earth. The impact occurred about 65 million years ago, when an asteroid the size of a small city crashed into Earth with an energy of 100 teratonnes of TNT. For those who like hard data, that's roughly 1 billion kilotons. Compare this energy with the 20 kiloton atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the impact of this collision becomes clearer.
The collision not only created a crater 168 kilometers in diameter, but also caused megatsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions all over the Earth, which greatly changed environment and sentenced dinosaurs to death (and apparently many other creatures). This vast crater, located on the Yucatan Peninsula near the village of Chicxulub (after which the crater was named), can only be seen from space, which is why scientists discovered it relatively recently.
1. Vredefort Dome Crater, South Africa
Although the Chicxulub crater is better known, compared to the 300 kilometers wide Vredefort crater in the Republic of South Africa, it is an ordinary pothole. Vredefort is currently the largest impact crater on Earth. Fortunately, the meteorite / asteroid that fell 2 billion years ago (its diameter was about 10 kilometers) did not cause significant harm to life on Earth, since multicellular organisms did not yet exist at that time. The collision no doubt greatly changed the climate of the Earth, but there was no one to notice it.
At the moment, the original crater is heavily eroded, but from space, its remnants look impressive and are a great visual example of how scary the universe can be.
On November 30, 1954, a meteorite hit the roof of the house of an American Ann Hodgesy and bruised her in the shoulder and thigh. The woman's health did not cause concern, but she spent several days in the hospital. Today, Ann is the only person hit by a meteorite, although about 4 billion of these celestial bodies fall to Earth every day.
Over the entire history of observations, scientists have counted 24 thousand. fallen meteorites, 34 of which, according to astronomers, are of Martian origin. Astronomers have calculated: the probability that a meteorite will hit a person is 1 chance in 180 years.
The longest meteor shower lasted 10 hours
On the night of November 13, 1833, the longest meteor shower in the history of planet Earth took place in the eastern United States, which lasted for 10 hours. The meteor shower occurred during the most powerful meteor shower, which today is called the Leonids. In total, about 240 thousand meteorites fell to earth that night different size. A similar phenomenon can be observed annually in mid-November, of course, on a more modest scale.
The largest meteorite to hit Earth is 80,000 years old
The largest meteorite fell to Earth in prehistoric times. It was found in 1920 in Namibia at Hoba West Farm, located near the town of Grootfontein, by farmer Jacobus. The Goba meteorite was unearthed and left in the place where it was found. The weight of this iron giant is 66 tons with a volume of 9 cubic meters. and dimensions of 2.7 by 2.7 meters. Today, the Goba meteorite is the largest piece of iron of natural origin. True, since the meteorite was found, it has “lost” 6 tons, and all because of erosion and vandalism.
The most poisonous meteorite fell in Peru
A meteorite that fell on September 15, 2007 near Lake Titicaca in Peru made a lot of noise. Eyewitnesses first heard a noise resembling the sound of a falling plane, and then they saw a fiery body engulfed in fire. At the site of the fall of the meteorite, a crater 6 meters deep and 30 meters in diameter was formed, and a fountain of boiling water began to beat from the crater. Apparently, the meteorite contained some toxic substances, since 1.5 thousand local residents became seriously ill, and severe headaches began.
Chelyabinsk fireball: the most powerful explosion of a cosmic body since the Tunguska meteorite
On February 15, 2013, a meteorite exploded over Chelyabinsk, the energy of which is estimated by scientists at 500 kilotons of TNT, which is more than 100 times greater than the Sutters Mill meteorite that exploded in 2012 in the United States. The diameter of the meteorite before the explosion was, according to scientists, 18–20 meters, and the weight was 13 thousand tons. The largest fragment of a celestial body weighing 600 kg was lifted from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul.
Scientists suggest that the Chelyabinsk meteorite is part of a larger asteroid from which it separated 1.2 million years ago.
The scale of the damage is impressive. In Chelyabinsk alone, windows were broken in 4.1 thousand houses, and 1.2 thousand people asked for medical help. Collapsed in nearby villages dropped ceilings, window frames were squeezed out, cracks appeared in the walls, electricity supply stopped, gas supply and mobile communications were interrupted.
The diameter of the largest meteorite crater on Earth is about 300 km
The Vredefort impact crater in Johannesburg (South Africa), with a diameter of about 300 km, is today considered the largest meteorite impact crater on Earth. It occupies 6% of South Africa. Its age is estimated at 1.9 billion years. Currently, 3 cities and a lake are located in the center of the crater.
The largest meteorite crater in Russia is the Karsky crater, located on the coast of Baydaratskaya Bay on the Yugorsky Peninsula, with a diameter of 120 km.
The largest collection of meteorites is in Russia
The largest collection of meteorites is in the Mining Museum of St. Petersburg - 300 celestial bodies. The largest specimen on display is a 450-kilogram meteorite. To be precise, this is part of the giant Sikhote-Alin meteorite, which fell apart on February 12, 1947 over the Ussuri taiga.
The decree on the "search for celestial bodies" was issued at one time by Empress Catherine II. The first exhibit was the Pallas Iron meteorite, which was discovered by Academician P.S. Pallas in the village of Medvedkovo, Krasnoyarsk Territory, during one of the Great Siberian expeditions. It is known that this meteorite was found in 1749 by the blacksmith Yakov Medvedev, who used its pieces to make various products. The block, weighing 687 kg, reached St. Petersburg from Siberia in 10 years. Later, the meteorite was cut into 2 parts, which are exhibited today in the museum.
The owner of the world's largest private collection of meteorites is Robert Haag from the USA. He collected heavenly stones from the age of 12. Today he has 2 tons of meteorites in his collection.
The most expensive meteorite went under the hammer for 330 thousand dollars
Today, meteorites can be bought in the United States at various auctions, as well as over the Internet. The cost of 1 gram varies from $1 to $1000. At the same time, Martian meteorites are valued much more expensively by collectors.Today, collecting meteorites has become fashionable and profitable, according to experts from the largest auction houses. Interest in meteorites was sparked in 1996 when NASA reported that the 4.5 billion-year-old Hellen Hills 84001 meteorite found in Antarctica contained the remains of microorganisms that once lived on Mars.
The most expensive meteorite sold at auction today is a fragment of the Dar al Ghani 1058 meteorite, sold in the United States for $ 330 thousand. The weight of this space guest is 2 kg, and its distinguishing feature- flat shape. The meteorite was discovered in Libya in 1998. Dar al Ghani 1058 was not only the most expensive meteorite, but also the largest that has ever gone under the hammer.
A fragment of the Seimchan meteorite, which was found in the 1960s in Siberia, was sold for $ 44 thousand, which turned out to be 12 times higher original cost lot.
A meteorite that fell on a cow in 1972 was sold for $1,300.
Egyptian pharaohs wore meteorite jewelry
Scientists who study ancient Egypt have proven that the decorations of the pharaohs of this period are of extraterrestrial origin. Recently, 9 metal beads were found near the city of Al-Girza, which were attributed to the Gerze culture (4th century BC). British scientists examined the jewelry using a tomograph and stated that the iron jewelry was made from a meteorite. Scientists came to such conclusions, since up to 30% of nickel was found in the composition of jewelry, and their age is more than 5 thousand years. It is interesting that the first data on the production of iron in this region date back only to the 7th century BC. BC. The metal is characterized by the Widmanstetten structure - this is the name of the pattern of large crystals that appear inside the meteorite during slow cooling.
Controversy rages around Buddhist artifact from the Ching meteorite
In 2009, at one of the auctions, a 10-kilogram sculpture "Iron Man" was sold - a statue of the Buddhist god Vaishravana, belonging to the pre-Buddhist Bon tradition of the 12th century. The statue was first discovered in 1938 by a Nazi expedition led by Ernst Schaefer. Prior to being sold at auction, the artifact was kept in a private collection. The results of geochemical analyzes showed that the statue was carved from ataxite, a very rare class of meteorites that is characterized by a high content of nickel. The auction claimed that the ancient statue was carved from a piece of the Chinga meteorite that fell about 15,000 years ago somewhere between Mongolia and Siberia.
Doubts about the origin of the sculpture were expressed by a specialist in Buddhism from Germany, Achim Bayer. Without denying the extraterrestrial origin of the material, the scientist claims that the Iron Man is a fake of the 20th century, and not an ancient artifact. Bayer points to the typical “pseudo-Tibetan features” of the sculpture: the object is “dressed” not in boots, but in European low shoes, he is not wearing traditional Buddhist attire, but trousers, a large beard, which Tibetan and Mongolian sacred sculptures never had, and a headdress and does look like a Roman helmet.
Bayer suspects that the sculpture was made in Europe between 1910 and 1970 specifically for sale at an antiquities auction, and that the story about the Schaefer expedition was made up by the seller to raise the price.
A meteorite crushed the Pope as conceived by an Italian sculptor
The Italian Maurizio Cattelano, who is called a provocateur in art, used the image of a meteorite to demonstrate the deconstruction of such binary oppositions as eternal-momentary, divine-human, sacred-profane, nature-civilization. He embodied his idea in the Ninth Hour sculpture, which was sold at Christie's for $886,000.
The sculpture depicts John Paul II, who was crushed by a meteorite. Cattelan assures that he did not want to say anything offensive, but only reminded that "that any power has an expiration date, like milk."
You can read about the most beautiful meteorite that fell to Earth, which is considered to be the Fukang meteorite.
March 15th, 2017Often our planet is attacked by various space objects. Most of them burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the surface of the Earth. Those that evaporate we call shooting stars or meteors (remnants of comets). However, some of the larger lucky ones, meteorites, still manage to sometimes reach the surface of the Earth, on which they can lie for thousands of years unchanged.
Asteroids are space objects even larger in size. According to one theory, one such rock left the Earth without dinosaurs about 63 million years ago, and with another like it, 2012 DA14, we narrowly avoided a collision in 2013.
Below we will talk about the six largest meteorites ever known to earthlings.
The largest meteorites
Iron Nickel Willamette
American Museum of Natural History, 1911
This is the largest meteorite ever found in the United States. Its weight is 15.5 tons and its size is 7.8 square meters. The dents on the meteorite were not formed because it partially burned out while getting to Earth. The thing is that it has rusted for hundreds of millions of years, lying in the humid forests of Western Oregon.
The meteorite was found at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1906. Before you get to the museum, an interesting story happened to the meteorite.
Initially, the meteorite was discovered by the Indians, who moved it to the territory of the Willamette Valley, Oregon. This assumption arose due to the fact that the impact crater was not found. It is believed to be in Canada.
The Indians worshiped the stone, calling it a guest from the moon, and the rainwater collected in the recesses of the stone was used by them to treat diseases.
In 1902, the meteorite was discovered by miner Ellis Hughes. The man immediately realized that in front of him was not just a stone, so he three months slowly moved the find to his site.
However, he was exposed, and the pebble was recognized as the property of a steel company in Oregon, on whose territory the meteorite was originally located.
In 1905, the meteorite was bought by a private individual for $26,000 and a year later donated to a museum in New York, where it still lives.
After the stone ended up in the museum, the Oregon Indians demanded the return of the meteorite, as it had been the subject of their religious cult for many centuries and took part in the annual ritual ceremony.
However, it turned out to be impossible to remove the meteorite from the museum without destroying the walls, so an agreement was concluded with the Indians, under which a ceremony can be held on the territory of the museum once a year.
The largest meteorites
Mbozi meteorite
This meteorite was discovered in the 1930s in Tanzania. The meteorite is almost 1 meter high, 3 meters long, and its weight is almost twice that of Willamette and is 25 tons.
For many centuries, local tribes considered Mbozi a sacred stone and did not tell anyone about it because of various taboos. They called it "kimondo", which is translated from the Swahili language as "meteor".
Interestingly, there is no crater at the place where the meteorite was discovered. This suggests that after the collision with the Earth, the meteorite rolled over the surface for some time.
90 percent of the meteorite consists of iron, like most of all its known counterparts, this also explains its dark color. On the stone are very noticeable traces of melting and heating to very high temperatures, which is a consequence of passing through the upper atmosphere.
People dug a ditch around the meteorite, since Mbozi was originally partially submerged in the ground. They left a layer of soil under it, which later became a natural pedestal.
The largest meteorites
Meteorite Cape York
This is the third largest meteorite that fell to Earth about 10,000 years ago. The meteorite was named after the place where its most significant fragments were discovered in Greenland.
The largest fragment of the meteorite is called "Anigito" and weighs 31 tons. The history of his name is interesting. When the stone was delivered by ship to the American Museum of Natural History in 1897, the four-year-old daughter of explorer Robert Peary broke a bottle of wine on it and uttered a meaningless word in her own language: "a-ni-gi-to."
They decided to name the pebble, which before that the Eskimos, who were the first to find a meteorite, called "Tent". "Anigito" took root better.
The second largest fragment of the meteorite is called Agpalilik (the aborigines called it "Man"). It was discovered in 1963, weighs 20 tons and is now in the Geological Museum at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Various meteorite fragments were found between 1911 and 1984. In addition to "Man" and "Anigito", they also found "Woman" (3 tons), "Dog" (400 kg), etc.
It is worth noting that for a long time, the Inuit tribes used fragments and fragments of the Cape York meteorite to create their harpoons and tools.
Meteorites that fell to Earth
Meteorite Bakubirito
This is the largest meteorite found in Mexico. It weighs about 20 tons, is 4.5 meters long, 2 meters wide and 1.75 meters high. It was discovered by geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey near the city of Sinaloa de Leyva.
The pebble was found in 1863, and now it can be seen in the science center of the city of Sinaloa.
El Chaco meteorite
This meteorite is the second largest meteorite ever to hit the Earth. It weighs almost twice as much as the previous one on this list - 37 tons!
He fell in Argentina and is part of a group of meteorites called Campo del Cielo. As a result of its fall, a crater was formed, the area of \u200b\u200bwhich is 60 square meters.
El Chaco was discovered in 1969 with a metal detector, because it was underground at a depth of 5 meters.
Meteorite hunter Robert Haag tried to steal it in 1990, but the local police responded in time.
Last year, in 2016, another fragment was discovered and brought to the surface, which, according to assumptions, is part of the same group of meteorites as El Chaco.
Goba meteorite
This meteorite is the largest ever found. It fell in southwest Africa, in Namibia, and has never been moved. It is twice as heavy as its closest rival El Paco: this monster weighs 60 tons.
The stone got its name from the Hoba West Farm, on whose territory it was found in 1920. It was found by pure chance by the owner of the farm when he was plowing one of his fields, because neither the crater nor other traces of the fall were preserved.
Goba is interesting because compared to other meteorites, its surface is smooth and flat. It is 84 percent iron and 16 percent nickel.
It is worth adding that the meteorite has never been weighed. It is believed that when it fell to Earth, its weight was about 90 tons. According to estimates at the time of discovery in 1920, the baby weighed about 66 tons, however, Scientific research, vandalism and erosion still did their job, so today Goba has lost weight to 60 tons.
Goba is by far the largest piece of iron of natural origin. It covers an area of 6.5 square meters. It supposedly fell to Earth about 80,000 years ago and hasn't moved since then due to its sheer size.
Oddly enough, but there was never a need to dig it out. According to one theory, due to its relatively flat shape, the meteorite glided over the surface rather than deepening into the ground.
