Lot 93
A collection of three Meteorites
Auction: 27 September 2006 at 12:00 BST
Description
from The "Sikhote-Alin" fall, (showing the violent effects of being torn apart in the atmosphere or being blasted apart on impact with the ground), the largest measures 9.5cm across and the other two both 7cm across (3)
Footnote
The "Sikhote-Alin" fall occurred on 12th February 1947 at 10.38am local time . The total known weight for this fall is over 23,000 kg. The Sikhote-Alin meteorite fell in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Primorye, Russia, near the village of Paseka (approximately 440 km northeast of Vladivostok). At around 10:30 am that morning, witnesses reported a fireball brighter than the sun that came out of the north, descending at an angle of about 41 degrees. The bright flash and the deafening sound of the fall were observed for three hundred kilometres around the point of impact. The smoke train, which remained in the sky for several hours, was 32 km long. As the meteorite entered the atmosphere, traveling at a speed of about 14 km per second, it began to break apart, and the fragments fell together. At an altitude of about 5.6 km, the largest mass apparently broke up in a violent explosion. The strewn field for this meteorite covered an elliptical area of about 1.3 km2. Some of the fragments made craters, the largest of which was about 26 m across and 6 m deep. Fragments of the meteorite were also driven into the surrounding trees.