Copyright - M.Bandli - Historic Meteorites
KUZNETZOVO
Novosibirsk Province, Russia
Fell May 26, 1932 - L6 Chondrite
Collection No. B160.1 - a 10.74 gram part-slice cut from parent sample #219 from the Russian Acadamy of Sciences.
An excerpt from Dravert's report: "On May 26, 1932, between 5 and 6 p.m., with the sky absolutely cloudless, a large bolide passed from west to east over the neighbourhood of Kuznetzovo. Its passage was accompanied by a buzzing noise which lasted for some time and resembled the sound of a flying aeroplane. Then were heard at short intervals deafening detonations resembling the firing of big guns. Some people counted ten detonations, others heard fewer. In the sky there appeared a small dark cloud with three times the apparent diameter of the moon, and several stones fell on the surface of the earth. The front part of the air-wave produced by the pasage of the meteorite caused a brief whirlwind which rocked the tops of birch trees in a small wood near the village. It was also noted that the ground shook, window panes rattled, and hanging articles began to swing."
Near the south-east portion of the village, an eleven year boy named Michael Ivanov and his mother, Natalya, both witnessed a rotating black object in the air. The boy described the sound "like two million rising pigeons." This stone fell approximately two meters from the area where the Ivanov children were playing. This first recovered stone, which weighed 2 kilograms, created a small pit and bounced approximately 17 cm. The grass in the hole was scorched, and the meteorite was warm when picked up about ten minutes later.
It is interesting to note that, according to the Dravert report, some of the villagers mistook the troilite in the meteorites as gold. A number of meteorites were heated in the fire, ground to a powder, and then washed in water to extract gold. Of course, they were not successful.
Dravert estimates that a minum of 23 kilograms was recovered and notes that it is likely many more stones were recovered and subsequently hidden by the inhabitants. Today a little over 4 kilograms is all that is preserved.
References:
Dravert, P.L. (1934) Shower of meteoric stones in the neighbourhood of the village of Kuznetzovo, west Siberia, on May 26, 1932. Min. Mag., March 1934, pp 509-512.
Grady, M.M. (2001) Catalogue of Meteorites , 5th edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
