Geophysical observations during the flight of the Chelyabinsk meteoroid

Abstract

The paper describes the effects of the passage of the Chelyabinsk meteoroid (which exploded on 15 February 2013 over the Chelyabinsk Region), which were established from geophysical data from West Siberian stations. The trajectory and speed of the meteoric body from the start of the glow to the breakup were recorded by surveillance cameras and dashcams. Records from broadband seismic stations were used to determine the exact time of the explosion (03:20:34 UTC) from the arrival times of the surface wave produced by this event. The explosion energy was estimated from the surface-wave amplitudes at ~100 kilotons on the assumption that the wave originated from a point source similar to a high-altitude thermonuclear explosion. A database of records from seismic stations obtained during the meteoroid passage has been compiled.

Toward the azimuthal characteristics of ionospheric and seismic effects of “Chelyabinsk” meteorite fall according to the data from coherent radar, GPS, and seismic networks

“…The meteorite flight generated acoustic waves produce a strong Rayleigh surface wave [ Edwards et al , ]. The seismic effects of the Chelyabinsk meteorite were studied in Kitov et al [], Heimann et al [], Tauzin et al [], Seleznev et al [], Dobrynina et al [], and Berngardt et al []. Kitov et al [] identified not only the surface but also body waves P n and S n at the nearest seismic stations.…”

“…Alpatov et al [2013] have shown, that the kinetic energy was ≈20 kT. According to Seleznev et al [2014] the explosion energy was ≈70-140 kT.…”

Seismic detections of the 15 February 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor from the dense ChinArray

“…Tauzin et al (2013) relocated the Russian meteor event source with stations of GSN and FDSN within 4000 km away from the meteor. Seleznev et al (2014) determined the exact time of the meteor explosion using West Siberian stations within 2000 km away from the meteor. The waveforms from ChinArray have longer epicentral distances of 4100-5200 km.…”

“…The equivalent yield of the explosion was about 500 kt of trinitrotoluene (TNT) (Antolik et al 2014). Many studies focused on the trajectory and speed of the bolide (Borovička et al 2013;Seleznev et al 2014). They found that the bolide generated a large shock wave during the last stage of explosion.…”