The meteor pulled from Lake Chebarkul.
Credit: Metro World News
1,256 pounds: that’s the weight of the meteorite that exploded over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region on Feb. 15 of this year. Now experts report that the operation to lift this celestial body from Lake Chebarkul has been completed.[videoembed id=112592]
Divers from Yekaterinburg recovered the meteorite in hard weather conditions. When a fragment was lifted from the 65-foot-deep lake, it turned out that instead of the expected one fragment, there were three large pieces of the meteorite.
“Apparently when the meteorite fell, it cracked,” Governor Mikhail Yurevich told Metro. “The weight of the two large fragments is 570 kilograms. This is probably the largest meteorite that has ever been found. It will be stored in our museum.”
The operation cost more than $50,000. Since many smaller pieces of meteorite remain in the sea, divers will continue retrieving them. “It’s small pieces for tourists,” said Mikhail Yurevich.
When the fell, the blast wave shattered windows in homes and destroyed the roofs of buildings.
More than 1,600 people were injured. The damage from the accident was about one billion rubles.
