Saw an article today on a Russian news site about a strange event that happened on the river Ural. The river is wide, entirely frozen, and covered with a very thick ice. But on the morning of January 12th, a local ranger was checking the area when he saw a clearing in the middle of the river completely free of ice (the length was 100 meters, the width 6-10) and in the center were piled up huge chunks of ice that according to the witnesses weighted something like 200-300 kilos each.
Some of the chunks were "thrown away" and were 10-20 meters from "the epicenter". The article says, that to do something like this, one requires either a strong explosive or a serious blow with something heavy and quick. Also, the cracks had some sort of geometric consistency and were mostly even angled triangles. The outer edges of some of the ice chunks appeared to be "black" as if burned. On some of the chunks also appeared traces of sand, as if the water from the bottom risen very quickly due to the impact.
Now, all of this indicates that it was probably a meteorite, the problem is that no one in the village nearby heard any loud sounds or explosion or anything. They called to all kind of authorities and they came with various types of equipment, and checked for toxins, radiation, etc., and found nothing. Some of the locals had "fantastic" (sic) stories about either little green men or a fireball. On that, administrative head in the area said that the person who saw the fireball was probably hangover, because he saw it on 16th of January, and the incident happened on 12th.
So if it wasn't a meteorite (unless everyone was drunk in the village or slept really tight and didn't hear the impact), what was it? UFO? Some strange phenomena? Methane? But, then, they would hear a loud sound as well, or equipment would be able to to record traces of it, right? What do you think?
Some of the chunks were "thrown away" and were 10-20 meters from "the epicenter". The article says, that to do something like this, one requires either a strong explosive or a serious blow with something heavy and quick. Also, the cracks had some sort of geometric consistency and were mostly even angled triangles. The outer edges of some of the ice chunks appeared to be "black" as if burned. On some of the chunks also appeared traces of sand, as if the water from the bottom risen very quickly due to the impact.
Now, all of this indicates that it was probably a meteorite, the problem is that no one in the village nearby heard any loud sounds or explosion or anything. They called to all kind of authorities and they came with various types of equipment, and checked for toxins, radiation, etc., and found nothing. Some of the locals had "fantastic" (sic) stories about either little green men or a fireball. On that, administrative head in the area said that the person who saw the fireball was probably hangover, because he saw it on 16th of January, and the incident happened on 12th.
So if it wasn't a meteorite (unless everyone was drunk in the village or slept really tight and didn't hear the impact), what was it? UFO? Some strange phenomena? Methane? But, then, they would hear a loud sound as well, or equipment would be able to to record traces of it, right? What do you think?
