Russian scientists found fragments of the meteorite that fell in Russia

February 18, 2013
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Russian scientists said on Monday they discovered fragments of the meteorite that exploded on the Ural region creating a shock wave that injured about 1,200 people and caused extensive damage.

The space rock fell on Friday near the city of Chelyabinsk in central Russia, with a force estimated by experts as 30 times that the atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

It exploded tens kilometers above the Earth’s surface but the fragments resulting from the explosion spread on this Russian industrial region.

The Emergency Situations Ministry had indicated on Sunday that rescuers are investigating a frozen lake where apparently some of the fragments dropped.

However, scientists at the University of the Urals sent to the scene said they have found about fifty fragments near Lake Chebarkul.

As the leader of the expedition, a member of the Academy of Sciences Viktor Grokhovsky said the meteorite belongs to the class of chondrites, a term that designates a type of stony meteorite, with a proportion of 10% iron.