Sikhote-Alin, 1947: the iron rain
The largest iron meteorite shower ever witnessed.
On the morning of 12 February 1947, a fireball brighter than the Sun crossed the Sikhote-Alin mountains in the far east of the Soviet Union. Its smoke trail hung in the sky for hours. The iron meteoroid broke up in the air and showered the forest with fragments.
Expeditions found more than 100 craters and pits, the largest about 26 m across, and recovered around 23 tonnes of iron. Some pieces are smooth with thumbprint-like dents; others are twisted shrapnel torn apart in the air or on impact.
Sikhote-Alin is a IIAB iron, a coarsest octahedrite. The Soviet Union issued a postage stamp for its tenth anniversary, and its pieces are among the best-known meteorites in collections today.
In the catalogue
- Sikhote-Alin Iron, IIAB, Russia, 1947 · 23 t