2013 Russian Meteor Explosion

Overview

2013 Russian Meteor Explosion refers to the meteorite impact event that took place over the Chelyabinsk region in Siberia, Russia on February 13th, 2013. The spectacle of the meteor streaking across the sky before exploding in mid-air was recorded on cameras from multiple vantage points near the impact site, the footage of which were subsequently uploaded to YouTube later that same day.

Background

On the morning of Febraury 15th, 2013, a meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere and shattered several kilometers above ground in Chelyabinsk region of Siberia, Russia. The shock wave caused by the explosion reached several cities in proximity, causing slight damage to buildings and injuring hundreds of people due to the broken glass falling from the buildings^[1]. The fireball and explosion was captured by dozens of cameras in the area, including dashboard camera and security camera footage, even from places 700 km away^[2]. It was initially thought to be a meteor shower,^[3] which was then discarded. Reports conflicted on what exactly happened. Eventually, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteor^[4].

Notable Developments

On YouTube

It didn’t take too much time until footage from the scene started to pop up on YouTube, almost all of them captured with dashboard and security cameras.

Other videos managed to capture the loud noise caused by the explosion on the higher atmosphere and the moment the blast reaches the ground (headphone users, please lower the volume):

On Reddit

In the following hours, one of the videos was posted on Reddit^[5] showing one of the videos. Within nine hours, the post gained 18,643 upvotes, 3,222 points overall and 200 comments.

Search Interest

External References