MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. Meteorites are ever more frequently found in the deserts of Oman and Chile and also in Antarctic glaciers, Dmitry Badyukov, head of the Meteoritics and Space Chemistry Laboratory of the Russian Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry within the Russian Academy of Sciences, told TASS on Wednesday.
"What is good about Oman is that there is no sand there. It's a coastal area and the monsoon winds blow away all the sand, so a smooth, rocky surface is formed there, where meteorites gradually accumulate," the scientist said, explaining the region’s attractiveness for meteorite seekers.
"The same is true about Chile, because there is little sand there," he noted.
"However, as for the sands in the Sahara, for example, they are not good. If a meteorite lands, it will be buried under the sand," the researcher explained.
Nonetheless, Africa’s northwest remains a major source of finds where nomads wander about the deserts there and come across meteorites, Badyukov said.
Antarctic glaciers are yet another place where scientists find space objects fallen to Earth, he said. "There are areas of blue ice there where meteorites also accumulate," the researcher revealed.
The high concentration of extraterrestrial matter in these fields can be explained by glacier movement and melting, he explained.
"If the [meteorite] body is large enough, it can disintegrate in the atmosphere and rain down. Trips to such shower areas are normally quite productive," he pointed out.
On Russian soil, the areas of the Chelyabinsk meteorite fall and the Sihote-Alin meteorite shower particularly stand out in this regard, Badyukov said.
Tenth anniversary of Chelyabinsk meteorite crash
Ten years ago, on February 15, 2013, a large meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over the territory of the Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals. The bolide dubbed Chelyabinsk became one of the largest space objects that had fallen to the Earth in the 20th-21st centuries.
The meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a huge explosion at an altitude of 20 km and the fall of numerous fragments on a large area in the Chelyabinsk Region. Hundreds of thousands of people in the Urals and northern Kazakhstan could observe the bolide’s explosion.
The biggest of its fragments rained down on the outskirts of Lake Chebarkul 78 km west of Chelyabinsk. The blast wave and meteor fragments damaged about 7,300 buildings, including apartment houses, educational institutions and other social infrastructure facilities and industrial enterprises. The roof of a building of the Chelyabinsk zinc plant collapsed on an area of 600 square meters. As many as 1,613 people, including 324 children, sought medical assistance.