Meteorite Impact Crater in Mexico?

Reports are coming in that there has been a meteorite impact 100 miles NorthEast of Mexico City. It’s also been reported that authorities have cordoned off the area. Discover Magazine’s Bad Astronomy Blog has a report Mexican Meteorite Crater? Below is an excerpt from that report.

“…Reports are a bit sketchy right now, but apparently a bright flaming object was seen coming down about 100 miles northeast of Mexico City on Wednesday around 18:30 local time. There was a roar that was loud enough to shake buildings.Another news article is reporting a crater 30 meters in diameter was found…” SOURCE – Bad Astronomy Blog – Mexican Meteorite Crater?

Another report states:

The Ahuazotepec, Mexico meteorite impact was so massive it broke windows in homes many kilometers from the epicenter and people reported buildings swaying and mass confusion. Other reports said the Mexico meteorite impact partiallydamaged a road and a bridge.

The Mexican military was called in to lock down the area where the apparent space rock slammed into the ground.

Initial fears where that the impact was a aircraft crashing to the ground, but that report was later dismissed. SOURCE –  Meteorite Hits Mexico Leaving 30 Meter Crater in Ahuazotepec Municipality

If this is true, and it is in fact a meteorite crater it will be the first since the meteorite smashed into Peru a couple years ago leaving a crater about the same size as is reported in this event.

This is good news for the meteorite world, however it’s a bit perplexing to scientists how such a small meteoroid could make it through Earth’s atmosphere to impact the surface to create a crater. Craters are extremely rare, and for an event like this to occur, it’s almost unheard of. In fact the Peruvian crater was a first for a chondrite (stone type) meteorite. Before this event it was thought that such small meteoroids could not survive atmospheric entry and the stone (asteroid) would burn up before ever reaching the ground.

Now though, after the Peruvian crater event in Carancas, this event if in fact caused by a stone meteorite, may help rewrite meteorite science, and push this area of meteoritics and crater formation in a new direction.

Terrestrial Weathering & Erosion of Small Meteorite Craters Related to Composition

In the opinion of this writer why there are not many known “small” craters because they simply don’t last long enough on our planet due to erosion and weathering of the crater over time. It’s possible that small craters like these can fill in quickly over hundreds or thousands of years (in geological terms) effectively erasing all evidence of the crater in very short time periods. It’s also thought that smaller meteoroids and asteroids usually are incapable of producing a crater because they might be destroyed during atmospheric entry. In other words, they burn up.

According to popular opinion in the scientific community regarding crater formation, small stone bodies must be of certain size and composition to survive entry and impact with the ground. Expanding on that, it’s possible that this is not entirely correct though most likely it is mostly correct.

More and more evidence is being compiled that supports the idea that it may not be as black and white as science first thought. As technology increases and more events such as this one and the Carancas Crater happen and are recorded the more it looks as if there may be more meteorites and craters on this planet that first thought, or this could turn out to be a kid playing with explosives who blew a big hole in the ground.

Is it possible this is the world’s newest meteorite crater?

We’ll see… Subscribe to our blog to keep updated on this article!