[meteorite-list] Five Chelyabinsk Meteorite Fragments Lifed From Lake

[Ron Baalke]

http://en.ria.ru/science/20130926/183754123/Probable-Fragments-of-Chelyabinsk-Meteorite-Lifted-From-Lake.html

Probable Fragments of Chelyabinsk Meteorite Lifted From Lake
RIA Novosti
September 26, 2013

YEKATERINBURG - Divers have lifted from a Ural Mountain lake five rocks 
thought to be fragments of the meteorite that exploded in February near 
the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, a local environment ministry said Thursday.

The fragments, ranging from 10 to 30 centimeters in diameter, will now 
be handed over to scientists for a thorough examination, the Chelyabinsk 
Region's Radiation and Environmental Safety Ministry said in an online 
statement.

The entire meteorite is estimated to have weighed 10,000 metric tons. 
Divers have been working to fish out a huge chunk - thought to weigh several 
hundred kilograms - buried under a 2.5-meter (eight-foot) layer of silt 
at the bottom of Lake Chebarkul.

Currently, silt is being pumped out of the lakebed to free that piece 
and possibly find others. The environment ministry's head, Alexander Galichin, 
has said he believes that the large chunk will be recovered by October 4.

The meteorite exploded on February 15, leaving about 1,500 people injured, 
mostly due to glass shattered by the shockwave. Scientists have said the 
space rock was a typical chondrite, a stony, non-metallic meteorite.