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Sikhote-Alin

Sikhote-Alin is an iron meteorite that fell in 1947 on the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in Russia. This fall is among the largest meteorite showers in recent history.

History

At around 10:30 am on February 12, 1947, eyewitnesses in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Primorye, Russia, observed a large bolide brighter than the Sun that came out of the north and descended at an angle of about 41 degrees. The bright flash and the deafening sound of the fall were observed for three hundred kilometres around the point of impact not far from Luchegorsk and approximately 440 km northeast of Vladivostok. A smoke trail, estimated at 32 km long, remained in the sky for several hours.

As the meteorite — traveling at a speed of about 14 km/s — entered the atmosphere, it began to break apart, and the fragments fell together. At an altitude of about 5.6 km, the largest mass apparently broke up in a violent explosion.

On November 20, 1957 the Soviet Union issued a stamp for the 10th anniversary of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite shower. It reproduces a painting by P. J. Medvedev, a Russian artist who witnessed the fall: he was sitting in his window starting a sketch when the fireball appeared, so he immediately began drawing what he saw.

Sikhote-Alin Iron Meteorite For Sale

Sikhote-Alin Meteorite
Fall - February 12, 1947
Primorskiy kray, Russia
Iron IIAB

Sikhote-Alin Shrapnel
When a very large meteorite hits the earth it can explode into thousands of smaller pieces. This happened with some of the largest masses of the Sikhote Alin fall of 1947 in Siberia. These pieces of torn and twisted nickel-iron metal were ripped apart by tremendous force when the comic body hit the Earth. They are called shrapnel fragments because they look very much like the twisted metal of a bomb explosion. But, these also preserve characteristics of their meteorite nature in the way they have cracked and torn. These are a must have for any complete collection of meteorites.