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On Friday, a scientist said that a huge fragment of meteorite that slammed into the Urals region in February was located on the bottom of Chebarkul Lake in Chelyabinsk Oblast. On 15 February, a meteorite landed with a massive boom that blew out windows and damaged thousands of buildings around the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,200 people in the area. The meteorite broke into approximately seven large fragments, and one of them is believed to have fallen into Chebarkul Lake, forming a hole in the ice about eight metres (26.25 feet) in diameter. In late March, a radar probe of the bottom of the lake revealed a crater possibly created by a fragment of a meteorite.
Viktor Grokhovsky, a senior researcher with Ural Federal University, was amongst the scientists who measured the magnetic field in the area where a meteorite chunk presumably fell. He said that the measurements indicated that an object, most likely a meteorite fragment about 60 centimetres (23 2/3 inches) in diameter and weighting approximately 300 kilos (661 lbs), is lying on the bottom of the Chebarkul Lake. He added that an eyewitness caught on camera how the meteorite exploded above the lake and apparently crashed through the ice, sending a massive jet of water into the air. He said, “[If] we have [a meteorite-like] substance, we have a hole in the ice, and a jet of water which was observed shortly after the explosion, what other proofs are needed? The [meteorite] fall, followed by a jet of water, was caught on camera”. The head of the Chebarkul urban area administration, Andrei Orlov, told journalists that sonar scans in the same area show an unidentified object measuring up to six metres (19.7 feet) in diameter at the bottom of the lake.
22 June 2013
RIA-Novosti
Voices from Russia 
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