International Comet Quarterly
Some interesting meteorite falls of the last two centuries
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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)]
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
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
1882 02 03 Mocs, Romania meteorite shower of thousands [12]
of fragments
1890 05 02 Forest City, IA, USA meteorite shower of some 2000 [12]
fragments; one fragment fell into
a pile of hay (no fire)
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;
evidently no evidence
1908 06 30 Tunguska, Siberia apparent airblast (no recovered [15]
meteorites) of an object entering
earth's atmosphere; leveled
hundreds of square miles of forest,
killing two men and hundreds of
reindeer
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
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
meteorite shower in that area
on that day
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]
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
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]
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
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] http://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
[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 http://www.geo-earth.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t2490.html (do a Google search with +"Brenda Archer" +meteorite).
[20] 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.
Catalogue of meteorites available on the WWW: National History Museum, London, 2000 catalogue is online.
See also the Wikipedia list
Cometary Science Center/Archive
