February 12, 1947 70 years ago The Sikhote-Alin meteorite fell in the Primorsky Territory
The Sikhote-Alin meteorite is the largest iron meteorite observed during the fall and belongs to unique natural phenomena. Its total weight is about 70 tons.
The meteorite fell on February 12, 1947 at 10:38 in the western spurs of the Sikhote-Alin (Primorsky Territory of the RSFSR). When moving in the earth's atmosphere at a cosmic speed, the meteorite shattered into thousands of pieces and fell like an iron meteor shower over an area of 3 square kilometers. The fall was accompanied by a bright fireball observed in the Khabarovsk and Primorsky regions of the RSFSR, within a radius of up to 400 km. A dust trail formed on the way of the car's movement, which was visible for several hours. After the disappearance of the car, there were blows, rumbling and hum; in some places shaking of the ground and buildings was felt.
The Sikhote-Alin meteorite is an example of a classic meteorite fall. The time and place of the fall, the wonderful weather and even the watershed, which preserved the picture of destruction to the maximum extent, turned out to be extremely favorable. The place where the meteorite fell was discovered the next day, and two weeks later the first researchers were at the site of the fall.
The researchers found 24 meteorite craters with a diameter of 9 to 26 m, 98 craters with a diameter of 0.5 to 9 m and 78 holes less than 0.5 m in diameter, formed by the fall of individual meteorites.
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Larger meteorites, weighing from several hundred kg to several tons, when struck against rocks, split into many fragments, and meteorite dust was formed, saturating the soil in craters and their surroundings. The largest intact meteorites weigh 1745, 1000, 700, 500, 450, 350 kg. The total mass of the collected meteorite matter (whole meteorites and their fragments) is about 27 tons.
The large amount of substance made it possible for almost any analysis without the danger of spending too much. Therefore, the meteorite has been thoroughly investigated. At least three monographs and hundreds of scientific articles have been written about him.