The Bering Sea airburst, 2018
A blast ten times Hiroshima that almost no one noticed.
Key facts
- When
- 18 December 2018, 23.48 UTC
- Where
- Over the Bering Sea, east of Kamchatka
- What hit
- about 10 m across
- Era
- The sensor age, 2000 onwards
- Location
- 56.90° N, 172.40° E
About 173 kilotons of TNT, released about 26 km up.
More than ten Hiroshima bombs: the largest airburst since Chelyabinsk.
What happened
Late on 18 December 2018, a small asteroid struck the atmosphere over the Bering Sea at about 32 km per second and exploded high above the water. It was the most powerful airburst since Chelyabinsk.
Yet almost nobody knew for months. It happened over a remote stretch of sea, far from towns and shipping lanes, and it only came to wide attention in March 2019, when scientists studying fireball data from US government sensors pointed it out.
Weather satellites had photographed it after all: images from that time show the fireball's trail and its shadow cast on the clouds below.
Effects
None known on the surface.
The evidence
US government sensor data, satellite images and infrasound records.
Did you know?
Some commercial aircraft routes between North America and Asia pass not far from where it exploded.
Airbursts of this size are thought to happen somewhere on Earth every few decades.
Related pages
How is impact energy measured? See energy explained, or try the impact calculator.