METEORITES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600200287-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2011
• Sequence Number: 287
• Publication Date: September 20, 1948
• Content Type: REPORT

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tr'LA StrruAiivrr x;,;:,,L1Li ,u
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
1 NF0RMA FRIG RT
PLACE
ACQUIRED USSR
DATE OF
.IDF7omtlrilON November 1947
4111r00C.+aY comet 10 W100A910i a,pj 41100 0A71W1" , 007t10004MIN
0-tH 001100$ta00 01100071$ 101011$001104$$$1010000 AnN
1. 0. 0..01 f00 aa. p ?11A010. 9n17* 111OIg10101010 9H9$LA1100
00 $11 0007019$ 10 001 100100110 10 00 $0100001.1 6..w s .r
DATE DISTR.20 September 1948
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
`THIS 5 UNEVALUATED INFORMATION FOR THE RESEARCH
USE OF TRAINED INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS
SOURCE Russian periodic.I, Narks i Ghirn ~cll, 1947. (FbB Per Mh 56T.1 -,1'rana-
Lan.c vtueu7al~ 5:M1.AJttl~i: Ur'.11 rLi~Hf:NKT 1947
At the end of February 1947 the Academy of Sctences UCSR received word
from its Far Lastern base at Vladivostok tuat an taormoua meteorite had fallen
----? _'. '. ..._. __
in the -A 44. +
1-- -- ?`
a
e
Vladivostok and Khabarovsk; it had felled trees over a large area., and
had formed rumerous craters. The director of the teoingical section of the
base, F. K. 8ltipulin, along with geologists of the Labarovek Geolo,-ical
Administration, examined the location, and found seve?al meteoric fragments
which were very similar in appearance to projectile a;linters.
The physicomathematical division of the Academy of sciences sug6ested
visor of the almost complete lack of information about th, circumstances of
the fall, I had to organs:* an expedition at Vladivostok
where I arrirred
,
on 1 April with nr fellow travellers, colleagues of the Iletitvto of
the Meteoritic Committee,Acadeeyr of sciences USSR. Togettr with colleagues
of th
F
5
b
e
ar
aatern
ase whom I had i:vited, the group couslited of nine
persons; to this group 12 sappero with two commanders were lttached by
order of the Maritime .ilitaxy District Headquarters.
The maritime taiga, our destination, presents a very thi.- forest of
numerous types of con+.ferous and deeiduors ors,. &, arcanKled x th lianas and
wild grape, witz all sorts of snrubbery. This ioreat is chokes with ti.e fallen
trunks of trees, which make travel, extremely difficult. nt th same time
there must b
d
e preserve
in thin dens( t.'iLa numerous traces ztY eeteoritic
bodies that nave pi3aed over. In low places, especially in the valleys of
streams and rivers, the soil is very swampy. In summer srisibilny is
limited to a few meters, as u result of which travel is possibl_ only t?;
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preliminary reconnaissance. Mosquitoes and tiny gnats swarm in the
moisture.-saturated air; moreover, the taiga abounds in ticks, which appei.r
in spring before the retreat of the az,ow. In summer, a search for reteorites
ir, the taiga over an area of many square kilometers is practically imrossible.
On the other hand, the search for meteorites is also impossible in winter,
when tie ground is covered with snow 1.2 meters deep. At the be inning of
autumn, about the and of August, there are violent downpours here, wric:,
frequently produce floods. Consequently, there are only two periods for
field work. early spring, between the malting of the snow and the develop
merit of vegtetetionp and late autumn and part of winter, before heavy s,,ow-
fall.
Thus, the group of about 30, including secondary workers, had ao rroxi_
mately one month to spend in the taiga at the spot where the meteorite fell.
For this purpose it was necessary to transport about 3 tons of barge including
iiiatruments, equipment, and provisions. This was possible only with the
active ..ooportior, of Part; and Soviet orLanizatione or the Maritime bray.
First, it was necessary to coliect evidence from the persons woo
witnessed the flight and fall of the meteorite while it was fresh in tneir
memory; likewise, it was necessary to determine the beat route to the meteorites
and to send sappers to the location to build shelter and do other prepara-
tory work.. This was done. by two?membera of the exel toc D nr' N_x_v,
who travelled along water-logged roads and marshes for several nuhdred
kilometers,and visited 52 populated places--collective farms, apiaries,
machine-tractor stations, border outposts, etc.--and interrogated about 300
eyewitnesses. Then, with the aid of simple goniometere, the coordinates of
the points of appearance and disappearance of the meteorites, according to
the eyewitnesses, were measured in relation to terrestrial objects. I
shall present, one of the numerous statements recorded by Divari and Karimov.
Ashlaban, a forester, was in the taiga 15 km wait of the place of fall,
and was chopping down a tree. It was a clear, frosty morning. Suddenly
he haw a second shadow appear from the tree and quickly turn around the trunk.
turning around, as saw a bright flying body twice ,as large as the aur., of
a color similar to twat obtained in electric welding. :Jumezoua sparkb of
various colors flew from the incandescent head of the oblong forma Behind
there atreched a dark, swirling trail, which remained for several hours.
In the passing light the trail oeemed red in color. nipprcachic,t the
horizon, the meteorite dropped sharply (it broke in two), and disappeared
beyond the distant taiga. After a short time a noise was heard like the firing
of many guns, and a dark pillar arose which remained until evetdng, grkidually
disappearing. co cjarring of the ground or perceptible air wave was noted.
We succeeded in finding a number of persona who, according to watches
verified by radio, noted the moment of fa)l of the meteorite almost exactly
to the minute, namely, 10135 Vladivostok time.
Plotting the observed trajectories of the meteorite in the atmosphere or
a grid in gnomonic projection, it was possible to determine its actual move-
ment in relation to the surface of the earth. It seemed that it wan flying
at an angle of 36 degrees to the norison at an airlmuth of 24 dagreea east
of true north. Its entire trajectori, from the moment of entrance into the
atmosphere, passed over the territory of the USSR. The meteorite was
ncvinb in the same direction as the earth, and overtook it at a small angle
to its orbit, at a speed of about 10 km per second. Such a comparatively low
speed permitted it, unlike the famous Tungus meteorite of 10 June _90t{, to
rsrch the surface of the earth, disintegrating into an enormous number
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and almost exactly in the direction of the meridian, with a declination to the
meteorite at a snallow depth in the form of parallel layers end slightly slanted
The thickness of the e&id cover throw out, consisting of clay and
fragments~of,porphyry, on tie edge of Crater No 1 did not exceed 0.5 meters,
The calculation ?of U.S voluno of tare ejected material led to tic same
meteoritic body, r.w'.t 5,000 toned material were ejected. The material
considerably exaeedlng the-?diamster of -the crater itse t,, IndiTidnel'gtones
asters '.xi the crater field. Crater Nc 1 is cup-shaped with anVelavation
-- All are heaps . saver shattered roc c, and Rave
almost no traces of trees.
The stru3ture of tho bottom, the int,rnal profile, red the :.beence of banks
in the Craters tf the Sikhote Alin meteorite present a sharp contrast to the form
of the moon IS OW-era. There."ore, one may say the experiment performed by nature
itself in this Phenomenon does not confirms the m.teortt
M a.1 ..-Gnl4 of One mass
of the meteorite and carried along with it. One may arrive at the same value
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of speed or, the basis of the investigation of the phenomena associated in the
formation of the crater f'eld. The mass of the meteorite wnicn formed Crater
No 1 must nave been approximately 30 tone. This is equivalent to an iron
sphere with a radius of one cater. Thus, the radius of the meteoritic mass
which formed Crater Flo 1 is approximately one-fourteenth the r4.dius of the
Is it possible to judge, on the basis of direct excavation, the mass
which formed the crater? The first data obtained on these craters Lave "aeon
a plastic conditicn at a rather high temperature (several hundred degrees):
is alto in agreement with the direction of fall of the meteorite. The clay
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tress only one or two, sometimes several, stand with tops torn off. Thus,, there,
no doubt that the tops were torn uff not by an air wave, whicn would have
necessarily bevelled all the trees without exception, but by individual pro-
jectiles, that is, by meteorites.
In addition, it was discovered hat the fall of the Masses forming the craters
was accompanied in a number of cases: by a bombardment of the trees with fine
particles of We dimensions of a bullet. The first example of this kind was
rim there lies a fallen cedar, whit.!, previously grow on the site of the very
edte of the crater. The cedar was torown toward the west over the old trunk
of a fallen tree. In the upper part of the tn,-'' of the fallen cedar there
was found an ordinary meteorite with piezpgliut':,which had ,,enetraLed the
trated the wood to a depts, of several centinmtere, were extracted from these
holes. The distribution of the h?,les snctwa that the bombardment of tt,e cedar
the formation of the crater. Af.er this ;)ombardment, the large craslcinc ,nssa
format'.! the crater and hurled tbs cedar in a radial direction to a distance of
several meters; and only after its fall did the individual meteorite hit it.
Thus, the small fragmentb which bombarded the cedar undoubtedly preceded the
large mass which formed the crater, althou;:h they were connected with it.
V:o took :iote of the :'act teat a few trunks, with sheared-off taps and branches,
ctanding at a certain distance from the southern side of the crater were covered
with numerous holes. To irreetigate these noise we had to fell one of the trees.
Orin of the holes went all '?ine way, thre2gh, which enabled us to determi,A rather
precisely the direction of flight, This coLrse we"t at a small inclination
upward, and, projected bacc, it passed above the crater.
The small, fragnrntary meteorites rhich bombarded the trees with a groat
kinetic energy preeint a striking contrast to the slower individual meteor..
Lees, which, as it apparent from the exiwple of the cedar at crater No 55,
were not in a condition svsa to peratrat~ the wood to a considerable depth.,
It must be noted, however, tba,. such awttoritea were encountered rather rarely.
Apparently on. y a few meteoritic masses aj.prOaching the surface of the rarth
beinn to buret in the air before the momet.t of direct Impact. The small
fratnentu obtai ad, which ur.'eraent an eltetic rebcund against the compreoh a
air cushion carried by the ,nateorite, hanly lcdinf any speed, pierced the trees:
or pe,.atrated them for several centimeter.. The fragments extracted fro- the
trees had aharp ed4,os or a cothpletely irregular form and did not display the
el9 gntest traces of any deformatio.a upon imps rt. Their speed, consque.itly,
could not rave boon ver great.' This is use evident fray the fact that they,
did not cause any charring of the wood muss The irregular facets of theaw
iron particles were scraetimee solidly filled with wood with traces of r:min.,
but withmt the Slightest sign of burnirl. One may assume with a considerable
decree of probability that these Small f:?agtmentary meteorites were ciar,cter?-
iced by almost the saw speed as the mai., mass at the moment of its fall.
Thin speed, evidentl,, could not nave e,;eeded a few hundred meters per second,
which corresponds to tre estimate made ibuve on the basis of dyraric consider-
ations. TLe loss to the mass which fell into the crater on account of t...ese
fragments evidently w- A be inef~pri."ican.ly Small.
The even finer a.steoritie watcriaa Rued in the clay inside some of toe
craters may as" an entirely diiferenu etinificence. With the aid of a
met, very ;Yee particles ware -liacovei?d insida Crater No 11; apparently
these constituted a considerable pert of he fill. It was sufficient to ;asa
the tragnet along tt.e grcrind (in places who -0 the lame fragments described above,
were encountered}::or its poles imorediat,Ly to form a brash of tine pieces
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rasses, did not yi"Id any results. Thereforw it was decided to conduct
excavations only ir,:.eparate sectors, according to the direction of fall of
the meteorite. In C.-titer No 11 four sectors were chosen, each with at. angle
of diffusion of 20 degrees toward the north, south, east, and west; the
f
The use of mine locators, which might have indicated the presence of large
The basis for tie onion oftrese two particular crater,u was Lido fac, that
the greatest quantity of large and small meteoritir fragments was found i., them.
to the fr,ll of ordinary projectiles. This corplicates 3udgmant as o its r
magnitude. It is apparently necessary to coiduct careful excavations and
to remove hundreds oi' toils of crushed rock and clay, which fell back into the
crater immediately after its formation. Such a task was beyond the powers
of the expedition. It must be noted that the ordinary removal of the material
from the cones can .ot serve the purpe-a, because the fiael? crumbled meteor..
itic material will. inevitably be lost in the process. It is necessary to
arrange the washing of Al the material from i..eide the crater, as is do,:e in
obtaining gold. Thr expedition had nothing at its disposal except shovels,
which were almost useless for tae purpose. Nevertheless it was decided to
make an attempt to ,,artially uncover Craters ,ao 11 and 31 (with diameters of
23.5 used 13.6 mater>), which were. typical of the large a,.d medium format. one
of t,.is kind.
so
ws
low speed, in all probability only double the speed of sot.od, cannot be compared
t t i
from this crater onto a piece of per and passing a magnet under it, it was,
possible to observe the movement of the earth from the presence of very fine
iron irclusioas. In o'tward appearance these particles have nothing in
common with the individual meteorites and evidently represent the result of
maximum granulation of the meteoritic mass which formed the crater.
Such a result was obtained by external examination of the large craters.
that the f.11 of meteoritic masses occurring at a comparatively
It h
of iron in the form of discs, needles, and dust particles. By sprinklini, a th
c?. 'der of the crater eas also designated for excavation. In the eastern sector
solid slabs of por,hyries. Thus one anparentl} must come to the conclusio?
tt.at tare i^ io large mass in ti,ee crater. The large fr..cnenta of meteorites
which mttnt i,ave isen extracted as a result of excavations over the entire
extent. .)f the inscda surface of the crater would presumably amount to 3 or 4
tolls. ;Phis, app.rently, is too small for a erater of such a size. A certain
portion of the rasa, certaihi;;, was hurled out of the crater and buried under.
a aa.lid haap cf clay and stales. One may think that a much larder part of the
original meteoiitie mr,sr3 was crushed into very shall pieces and scattered over
Finally, the same insult was evident for the very center of the crater a-- well:
also fol:nd .1ere. But tore excavations were nob conouaveu uvaa- ,,,,u -u-
extent of the sector, so the result cannot he retarded as fully rolia,.le.
The soutaer:, sector required the most work of all. The thickness of the
fill was no less tha, 1 muster, and a tremendous quantity of fragmentary
meteorites was discovered among the l.rie frutmerrts o porphyries. iven
here, :.owover, we reached intact deposits of rocks in the form of powerful
aloha which there w.b neither the possibility nor the necessity to move.
n
item in the given ins:'ance was comparatively very small. Intact rock deposits
we succeeded in reaching intact layers of porphyries, lying, as it turne.c oil ,
with a small inclination toward the horizon and separated by distinct fissures.
The thickness of the removed layer did not exceed half a meter. All enoxsouu
quantity of fragmentary meteorites of varying magnitude with ragi,ed edtea was
founti in this sector. in the western sector intact rock deposits were 'n-
irr-ed at a somewhat greater depth, but the number of fragmentary moteco-..
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Excavations in Crater No 31 were conducted only in the directiou of the
meridional cross sectio::, but the result was the acme. In the southern :-art
of the cross section a ?-ery large quantity of iron fragments of meteorites
was found; in the uorthnrn part, considerably fewer. In both cases, as well
as iu the center, intact rock deposits were reached, which indicate the absence
of a large meteoritic miss.
Thus it is extreme:.y probable that the meteorites which formed the craters
were not preserved in the forri of large masses penetrating deeply, but were
crushed into small fra cents. This is in conformity with their coarse atruc
ture. As was established by chemical analysis conducted first at the t;nendcal
Laboratory of the Far Ester.i base of tree academy of Sciences of the UCCR
in Vladivostok, -and later at the Geoci,emical Laboratory in koscow, the
meteorite was distiltiis,.esj a, an axtremel, low nickel content (5.d per cent
,Li, 0.34 per cent Go)i and it had an octahedral structure with large amounts
of interstiuial materiel with a comparatively low cohesion.
. Excavations of zr, all cr.,-,es of a diameter of 1-2 meters showed a comrletoly-
different result. Those co:,ss were formed somewhat later than the lame craters;
in other words, the rateorices whicn created them fell at lower speeds t,.an
the lag masses winch crux;ed the rocks. Thin may be easily established by
studying the dist,d_buticu of the material hurled out of the various craters.
As a reap+t cf the leaner apsed of fall of ..'e am ro , tom ~s _ , es,
these latte? were able to he preserved for the most part, although they displayed,
a tendency toward granuletl.on. The oxcavations of small cones conducted by
Krinov, 'ialinkiri, and L;;ub.tskiy were very instructive in this respect. Thus,
for N.apple, a meteorite 2.7 netera in diameter and 0.8 rioter deep with
a.raeterlatic pivaoglinte, was discovered with the aid of a mine locator in
.one No 79; three other meteorites were found in the vicinity, at distances of
5.2, 4.7, aid 2.9 meters from it. Men these three meteorites were placed
together, their surfaces fitted together very well. Thus the original mass
was reestablished with dimensions of 72 x 37 x 30 cm, Moreover, a considerable
quantity of smaller fragments was fount in the same cone.
teteorites were extracted whole from ednesor smaller dimension. These
meteorites, extract-d. from a certain depth, represent a transition to bodies
of ever. smaller dimension, which, as a rule, for.ned only small depreeeiors or
lunes; they Is,, in them openly, or, as napnened very frequently, they sprang
out of them for some distance. Many similar individ?,ul meteoritea were ouad
by Krinov,.Livari, Shikulin, and other members of the expedition when they
inspected the crater field aid its vicinity, primarily in a i,ortrerii nirection.
All similar meteorites presented a solid mass covered with pieao;li..tr qe
a result of irregular fusion in the atmosphere, but without the sliLi.te$L. traces
of grCielation. It is curious that the large craters are concentrated Is
a
comparatively small area (about 1.4 km), and are mixed with ama3l cones of
all dimensions. Individual meteorites were also discovered repeatedly i, the
crater field itself, lying in small lunes or simply on the ground in the
most unexpected places, for example, under the roots of trees around individual
fallen trunks, etc. Individual meteorites were also encr-iateied far beyo,ri the
boundaries of the crater field in a northern direction. A combing of the taiga
for d. lane of . = to the north showed finally, a ;.radual decrease in tie
nun;ber of meteorites, but tie limit of their extent was not reached for certain.
WO were even lean successful in exploring the region to the northea.^.t of toe
crater field, where it was necessary to halt before extensiva marshy places in the
valley of a stream flowing into the Khanikhese River. In all, 256 individual
meteorites were found with well-defined piozogli:,ts at various stages of their
development. A few specimens are of interest from the point of view of judging
the gradual development of piezoglints and the origin of the crust of tempering.
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Small meteorites frequently displayed deep and narrow fusions with intrusions of
crystalline structure srd rite pieaOLliutc, broad and undulating on one faced.,
small and narrow on another. These peculiarities permit one to establish tiow the
separation of tine fragments from the meteoritic lumps it, their flight in the
atmosphere occuared...for the facets with larger piezoglinte evidently represent
a part of the larger mass.
ire must now characterize the general iacpression obtained from the crater
field. By a fortunate circumstance, it in located near the Iman-Ulunga air
route and may be easily observed from a plane. Owing to just this circumstance,
the place of fall of the Sikhote Alin meteorite was quickly discovered. As
early as 13 February, the very day after the fall of the meteorite, an aviator,
Semenov, of the Iman airdrome flow over this field and took note of it, out
did not make a full report. On 15 Fsbruary this field was found by a?.iators
Firteikov and Ag{eyev of tike Khabarovsk Geological administration; later, as
already indicated, it was viait3d by geologists of the same administration
simultaneously with F. K. Shipilin, director of the neology section of the
Far Eastern base of the Acadery of Sciences of the USSR. The field was photo-
graphed from the air by motier-picture cameraman Prok. In June of the same
year it was again photographed by a member of our expedition, N. B. Divari.
By this time the taiga was already covered with dense vegetation. The tops
of the individual trees surrcending the crater field are plainly visible on
Uiveri'a photographs, but an; almost imperceptible at tue actual spot where the
ciaterw e v located.. Numerous tree trunks stripped of their branches
attract one's attention; belts of fallen trees radiate from the craters,
which stand out against a general dark backbround in the form of broad,
white rings with a darker center. The radial sjecti< .s?f the same white
material is noticeable in tl9 form of alparate rays, primarily in one direction.
Such a selectivity in the a,ection of material is also confirmed b_ the direat
examination of the entire crater field. In suds places, for axample, between
Craters No 20, 31, and U. ,here extends an almost continuous strip of fallen
trees, as if a gigantic tor.rado had passed hers from the north.
The felled and mutilates trees in the area of the crater field merits
careful study by further expeditions. This illuatrateei the complicated
play of aerodynamic forces Thich appear with the fall of large meteorites.
As has been shnwn, the ipeol of their fell exceeded the speed of sound. Under
xuci, r.?orditious an air ovation must have been moving in front of the meteor-
ma:aa witl, the force of compressed air, which coutinously ;rpilled ,.long
toe sides, creating; a atro.rg ayntem of wiilrlwirds. With a coamlu speed of
movement in tie terre,tria~ atmosphere of the order of tens of kilometers''..
per second, the ccmprsasio:, of gases in front of the head of the rteteori to
occerrod so intenaivcly that their terperature w..a capable of rising to 3 or 4
thoi card degrees. Theme gases, a rdxture of air and incandescent vatx,ru of
iron, quickly spilled alone the sides, fr idng the viable head of t;;e r.'r.eor
its with linear di!iensions of 300-500 meters, that is,enormous in compari
sion with the di:aenaions of solid meteoritic masses. As a result of adia
bgtic expansion, tJis Ease.*us wrapper., opaque and brigggr,ti;; Eloarning, cooled
quickly, which sat a limit to its visible diminsioos; As a result, the
iron-rlekel aapors quickly condensed and, Zagging behind the be, ,l c.f -..a
meteors t., formed .a dark swirling trail, reflecting the whf_riwirde wilclt
iravit., bly developid behind the flying mass. Tae material of tuia trail,
heirq.- at first opt.que, admit'.ed red. light primarily, aid therefore aua?
consisted of rert.oles of iron very small in comparison with the length of
the light wave, 'he'pnysical form of this mate.ial may be reproduced experi-
mentally.
At the moment of fall of the meteorite, the concition:s must have become
even core complicated. ihen the comp*'ese4d air driven forward by tzie fulling
mass encountered an obatac:.e in the form of the surface of the earth. it urug;
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have exerted a strong reaction on the ground and on the meteorite itself.
The small fragments which flew with great enemy (sometimes piercing trues),
so far as one can tell, were a result of this reaction, and rebounded from
the elastic air layer even before the fall of the meteorite. The large mete;r-
itic mass F&err,ed this compressed air layer aid struck the rock deposits,
crushing them, and bux,'inL itself to a mallow depttt.
The rich .naterial collected by the expedition must yet undergo careful
processing. The determina;,ion of the speed of movement of tt,e meteorite in
space and at the moment of fall not only will make it possible to celcvl.,te
its orbit art determine its movement in the heavens before its encountr.rwith
the earth; ?'.t will also provide indispensable prerequisites for a ui.scr.ssion
of the formation -f craters, and consequently of the total Truss of the oteor.
its. if t.e total met; of the meteorite, as seems highly possible, wus
of i.ne ordir of one thousand tons, then the Sikhote %lin meteorite coul;.
have iree, ?joticed in. the form of an asteroid of the fifteenth magnitude, and
at a dis:ztce three times greater than the radius of the lunar orbit.
Cho pnotoLrapha in this article have not been reproduced, but are available
:n the origt.>al document at Foreign Documents Branch, CIA..
1. Crater field covered with stories and tree trunks.
2. Tree trunk with many voles produced by small meteoritic fr:...gments.
3. Part of a crater 28 meters in diameter.
4. Frapoents of meteorites found inside a crater.
5. Trunks of trees with sheared-off tope and branches, .pierces, by meteorites.
6. Fragments of meteorite (placed beside a hammer for comparison).
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/29: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600200287-3