Meteorite Impact
A meteorite is an object that survives a trip through Earth’s atmosphere and hits the ground (adapted from NASA, no date).
Primary reference(s)
NASA, no date. Meteors & Meteorites: What’s the difference between a meteor, meteoroid and meteorite. Science Solar System Exploration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Accessed 14 October 2020.
Annotations
Additional scientific description
Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as 'space rocks'. When meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or 'shooting stars' are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it's called a meteorite (NASA, no date).
On 15 February 2013, a meteor exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk, southern Russia. Although no people or buildings were hit by the resulting meteorite, the shockwave from the exploding object injured about 1500 people and caused damage to 7200 buildings in the region. The fireball was captured on video, mainly by dash cameras, and posted on the internet by news organisations and individuals (Nelson, 2018).
Although the Chelyabinsk meteorite probably weighed about 12,000 to 13,000 tonnes and measured 17 to 20 metres in diameter before it exploded, scientists were quick to state that it was very small compared to other objects that could potentially hit the Earth. The explosion released energy estimated at about 500 kilotons of TNT (about 20 to 30 times more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb). The event brought to the world's attention the very real hazards associated with the impact of objects from outer space (Nelson, 2018).
Metrics and numeric limits
Not identified.
Key relevant UN convention / multilateral treaty
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
Drivers
Not Applicable
Impacts
Meteorite impacts produce an array of impact effects that can harm human populations: wind blasts, overpressure shock, thermal radiation, cratering, seismic shaking, ejecta deposition, and tsunamis. Rumpf et al. (2017) quantified the contributions of each of these effects on overall losses due to a meteorite impact of a given size in a global setting.
Small meteorite impacts, with parent bodies on the scale of no more than few metres, will have only highly localized hazard potential, essentially comprised of material falling around terminal velocities.
Decametre- sized parent objects can cause airbursts which may reach the ground and cause hazards through shock waves, overpressure and high wind speeds. In addition, larger masses can reach the ground at high speeds, causing localised explosions upon impact.
Objects larger than about 50 metres in diameter (in addition to airburst effects) have the potential to cause sizeable craters, fully destroying the area occupied by the crater (varying with the size of an impactor) and posing further risk to the surrounding area upon impact, comparable to ground-level explosions of varying size.
Objects of sizes more than 100 metres in diameter will pose a risk to areas of tens to hundreds of kilometres and should be avoided through internationally coordinated space-based deflection efforts.
Multi-hazard context
The figure below summarizes common interactions between meteorite impacts and other hazards. This information should be used with caution and not be solely relied upon in Disaster Risk Management, particularly as some interactions may not have been included. Note that hazardous events occurring together or locally in space or time may not necessarily cause, amplify or be otherwise related to each other. Specific examples of multi-hazard context can be found in the ‘Hazard drivers’ and ‘Impacts’ sections above.
Multi-hazard diagram
Risk Management
Not Applicable
Monitoring
Monitoring the risk of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) capable of causing meteoritic impacts can mostly be supplied via telescopic observations of various positions of an object. Observational data is exchanged via the Minor Planet Center (MPC). The acquired positional data can be used to determine current and predict future orbits and potential impact probabilities. This activity is being executed by several agencies, such as ESA (Aegis system), NASA (Sentry system) and SpaceDyS (NEODyS system). In case of identified impact threats, the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) will coordinate and aggregate information and inform decision- makers and the general public.
References
NASA, no date. Meteors & Meteorites: What’s the difference between a meteor, meteoroid and meteorite. Science Solar System Exploration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Accessed 1 April 2025.
Nelson, S.A., 2018. Meteorites, Impacts, and Mass Extinction. Accessed 1 April 2025.
Rumpf, C., H. Lewis and P. Atkinson, 2017. Asteroid impact effects and their immediate hazards for human populations. Geophysical Research Letters, 44. DOI: 10.1002/2017GL073191. Accessed 1 April 2025.