Skip to footer

Russia meteor blast produced 2.7 magnitude earthquake equivalent

The meteor blast in the skies over Russia that injured hundreds and also triggered shaking that appeared on seismograph readings.

|
U.S. Geological Survey
Shaking caused by Friday's meteor blast over Russia, recorded by earthquake monitoring instruments.

A meteor explosion in the skies above Russia this morning also walloped the Earth, triggering shaking as strong as an earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports.

Today's early morning blast, centered on the Chelyabinsk region, sent massive tremors through the ground, which were recorded on seismic monitoring instruments around the world.

Initial reports pegged the explosion as similar to a magnitude 2.7 shaker, according a seismograph released by the USGS. For comparison, the 1908 Tunguska meteor blast's shock waves, which flattened 80 million trees in Siberia, produced the equivalent of an estimated 5.0 temblor.

"When you have an explosion in the air, it shakes the ground, and we see it on the seismographs," explained Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Denver, Colo., which reported the meteor-related tremors. "It's not an earthquake, and it looks very different from the usual earthquake seismogram," he told OurAmazingPlanet.

Few meteor explosions have actually been recorded on seismographs, though, Caruso said. "We've been looking at it all morning," he added.

The meteor reportedly injured hundreds of people and damaged hundreds of buildings when it exploded in a massive blast Friday morning (Feb. 15).

Most of the injured were reportedly hurt by falling glass caused by the blast, and many have been hospitalized. In addition, an estimated 297 buildings suffered damage, including six hospitals and 12 schools, according to translations of updates by the Russian Emergency Ministry.

Scientists think a meteoroid entered the atmosphere above Russia's southern Chelyabinsk region, where it exploded and broke up into fragments scattered across three regions of Russia and Kazakhstan, according to news reports. [Photos of Russia's Meteor Fireball Blast]

The Russian meteor probably had nothing to do with the upcoming close Earth approach of asteroid 2013 DA14, which is due to make its closest approach to the Earth at 2:24 p.m. ET, Don Yeomans, head of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, told SPACE.com. The Russian meteor's trail did not travel south to north as the asteroid will.

Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Russia meteor blast produced 2.7 magnitude earthquake equivalent
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0215/Russia-meteor-blast-produced-2.7-magnitude-earthquake-equivalent
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe