The meteor craters of Earth

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Above is one of the craters in the Kaali Meteorite Crater Field on Saaremaa Island, Estonia. There are a total of nine meteor craters in the area which were formed 7600 years ago when a meteorite broke up after entering the atmosphere. The largest impacted with a force of 20 kilotons of TNT (slightly larger than the Hiroshima a-bomb). Needless to say, there was widespread destruction in the area. The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, has descriptions of fire falling from the sky which destroyed houses and fields as well as killing numerous people which might be a memory of the meteor strike.   

Below are images of more meteor craters from the Amusing Plant post The Most Visually Impressive Impact Craters on Earth. The first is the Kamil crater in the Egyptian desert. It is young, 5,000 years old, and because of its location it has not yet eroded badly so you can even see the ejecta rays. The others are older and have been more heavily eroded.

Close encounter with a meteor

Anders Helstrup, a Norwegian skydiver, had a couple of GoPro cameras mounted on his helmet when he did a jump. When he reviewed his video (seen above) he saw something zoom past him as he fell. Slowed down, and studied by a geologist, it appears he caught a meteor whizzing past him at 300ph.

You can read about it in the Universe Today article Norwegian Skydiver Almost Gets Hit by Falling Meteor — and Captures it on Film (via Slashdot).

I wonder how many meteors have almost bonked me and I just haven't been playing close enough attention?