Meteorite impacts Latvia, large crater

It's (baby) Superman!

Is this story true or false?

Hard to tell at night, in the daylight would expect to see debris around the crater if its real.

Looks real though ) Kewl !

Here's a report from the relatively reputable Russian news agency IRAT-TASS;-

RIGA, October 26 (Itar-Tass) - A meteorite fell in the area of the Latvian city of Mazsalaca on Sunday evening, as a result of which a 20-metre wide and 5-metre deep crater formed, nobody was hurt, aide to the country’s State Fire Fighting and Rescue Service head Inga Vetere told Itar-Tass.

“This happened at about 18:30, Moscow time. Rescuers and police are currently working at the cite of the incident, they have cordoned off the crater so that to prevent anybody from injuries. We are not finally sure that this is a meteorite, because, as eyewitnesses said, something fell from the sky and fire started. It is important the most at the moment if there is radiation there. We will find out this during night,” she said. With this end in view representatives of the Latvian Radiation Centre and the country’s National Armed Forces have been dispatched to the site.

[link to www.itar-tass.com]

Last Edited by Ossie bloke on 10/26/2009 03:49 AM

To me it looks fake ... just a man-made fire in a digged hole ... there is only one news article I found:
[link to www.itar-tass.com]
But this doesnt mean much, the balloon kid was also in the news and it was a hoax. We have to wait for more info.

Some Latvian news sites:

[link to www.delfi.lv]

[link to www.tvnet.lv]

PX

Some more pics:

[link to www.fotoblog.lv]


Looks fake, tbh.

In those photos it does look as if the crater has been dug with earthmoving equipment.

In the Youtube however, the walls on the camera side of the crater are definitely smoking hot. When the wind direction changes it can be seen the smoke is coming from the surface of the walls and not from the fire in the center. That would have taken quite a bit of work to hoax.

I see a grass layer a bit from the surface, but that is normal if earth were to be kicked up and ontop of the grass due to the creation of the crater.


Good find OP!

Scary/cool..um what time Australian, OP?

Around 2:30AM Monday EDT.

ok, I finally watched it with sound on.

Seems that they saw in falling, but started to film just later.

Also the girl at the end says something about 'that can't be a plane...'.

The filmers sound too sincere for it to be hoax. Country folks.

It's still 11:19 AM here.
It's not yet 100% confirmed it is really a meteorite.
There are specualtions that it could be a 'part of sattellite', etc.
Some dailight pics/videos hopefully should appear in next few hours.

anything but a dense large object would have disintegrated on its entry. shill alert!!

No one would have believed that in the first years of the twenty-first century.....

Calm down already. I am not shilling, just stating the fact that it's not yet confirmed, what kind of object that really was. What is known:
- The sand in the center of 'crater' has melted, so it definitely wasn't just a 'bonfire';
- There are some yellowish metalic residues;
- Very strong smell of sulphur was all around the place;
- it is not radioactive.

Last Edited by Abyss Lady on 10/26/2009 05:31 AM

some morning pics of the place:

[link to www.delfi.lv]

[link to y.delfi.lv]
[link to y.delfi.lv]
[link to y.delfi.lv]
[link to y.delfi.lv]
[link to y.delfi.lv]

Last Edited by Abyss Lady on 10/26/2009 05:46 AM

The way soil is piled up against the edge of the crater... nah. I'm calling it an elaborate hoax.

Do you think that someone manually dug the hole?

But yeah, yeah, this stuff now is all over our local MSM, and the govt is quickly passing the next years budget or something :)

Update.
MSM article about how it is a hoax:

[link to www.apollo.lv]

Geolog says that it is just a man-dug hole, and that salpeter and sulphur has been burned in the middle of it.

the hole seems quite exact, aldo, why would it burn like that? it'd be iron as a rule?

The radiation will circle the earth 7 times.

This thread and Latvia's media is obviously for ignoramuses.

Contrary to popular belief, meteorites are not burning on impact. In fact, they are most likely to be cold and frosty. They are at near absolute zero temperatures in space, usually spend a fraction of a second burning in the upper atmosphere, forming a thin "fusion crust", but the interior is still cool. I study and collect meteorites, and while there are countless cases of witnessed meteorite falls, I don't recall any case of a confirmed meteorite starting a fire, try to find one that did, and you won't, because it doesn't happen.

If it was dug with an excavator there would be vehicle tracks in the field, but can the reporters be trusted to say if there are or not? The soil looks pretty easy shovel digging, could have been done by a small team over a day. If that is the case then tracks wouldn't really be an issue.

What may at first be assumed to be smoke coming from the side of the crater could have actually been steam from hot water sprayed on just prior to the videoing.