SIKHOTE ALIN

Iron coarsest octaedrite,
Bandwidth 9 mm

Fall 1947, February 12 10:38 hr

46°9'36" N, 134°39'12"E

Maritime territories, Russia

TKW estimated: 70 tons

approx recovered weight 27 t

History:
The largest shower in historical time occurred in Eastern Siberia on February 12, 1947.
The unique phenomenon was observed by many eyewitnesses and has been the subject of numerous, very thorough studies by the Russian scientists. In full daylight, a fireball moved from north to south and, about 10:38 A.M. local time, fragmented in the Earth's atmosphere.
The apparent diameter of the bolide with its luminous envelope was estimated to be 600 m. The brightness exceeded that of the sun, according to eyewitnesses, and the dust trail was observed for several hours before the particles precipitated or were scattered by the wind.
When this iron fell it went off like a grenade. The shower of fireballs fell in thick forest in the Sikhote Alin mountains, 25 miles from Novopoltavka, Maritime Territories.
The debris covered an elliptical area of 1.6 km on the snow-covered western spurs of the Sikhote-Alin Mountains. Most of the impacting meteorites did not, however, penetrate the eluvial and alluvial debris, which covered the bedrock with 1-2 m thick layers, and moreover, at the time of impact, were solidly frozen to a depth of one meter.

Altogether 122 impact holes were found with diameters ranging from 26 to 0.5 m and with depths ranging from 12 to 1 m. It appears plausible that the incoming bolide had a mass of about 70 tons fell including dust. It split finally at an altitude of about 6 km and scattered thousands of ragged fragments resembling bombshell fragments within an elliptical area. It is believed that many fragments were detached early in the flight and that these proceeded as "sputniks" along with the main mass. The small area over which specimens are scattered suggests that the meteorite broke up very late in the atmosphere.

In many holes the impacting body had survived as an entity, but in a number of other holes it had broken up completely. One such hole furnished 464 specimens totaling 256 kg.
The largest unbroken individual specimen, was 1,745 kg, was first discovered in 1950 in a rather small pit of 28 meters of diameter. Several fragments had hit the trees of the dense taiga forest and had either broken them or damaged them. A 13.6 kg specimen was thus found firmly embedded in a partly split, 70 cm thick cedar tree.

Further expeditions in '90 and early 2000 recovered several hundreds of kg of this exceptionnal meteorite. Today, it is quasi impossible to prospect the ellipse of fall due to rulers of the area. Overall, official exportation is very difficult.

For further information see E.L.Krinov "Giant Meteorites" published in 1966 Ó Pergamon Press Ltd.