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Splatvia! 'Meteor Crater' Was Really A Hoax
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[link to news.sky.com]
5:15pm UK, Monday October 26, 2009
Emma Rowley, Sky News Online Scientists say a crater in Latvia initially thought to have been caused by a meteorite was really a hoax.
The meteorite fell near the Latvian city of Mazsalaca
Onlookers are dwarfed by the giant crater - burning matter was pictured inside it.
Experts in the Baltic country rushed to the site after reports that a metorite-like object had crashed in the Mazsalaca region near the Estonian border on Sunday afternoon.
But after examining the site, Uldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre, said: "This is not a real crater. It is artificial."
Earlier he had said he believed the 27ft and 9ft deep crater might have been caused by a meteorite.
He said: "My first impression is yes, it was a meteorite.
"All the evidence suggests this when compared to pictures of real meteorite craters."
However, geologist Dainis Ozols had already cast doubt on the meteorite theory after examining the hole.
When the crater was found, with burning material at the bottom, worried residents called emergency services.
Dramatic video posted online showed onlookers walking towards the edge of the crater and gasping as they saw the fire burning at its centre.
The rim of the crater was raised a little and there was a black-grey scar at the bottom which indicated a meteor strike, he added.
State police cordoned off the hole to deter souvenir hunters looking for stardust.
Meteors are chunks of metallic or stony matter which enter the earth’s atmosphere from outer space.
The few which do not break up before reaching the earth are called meteorites.
The largest meteorite ever found weighed about 60 metric tons and fell to Earth near a farm in Namibia.
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