More than 1100 Injured After Meteor Explodes Over Russian City of Chelyabinsk

If you're convinced the end times are upon us soon, what happened in Russia on Friday morning is unlikely to change your mind.

The Siberian industrial city of Chelyabinsk was rocked by the shockwave from a firey meteor that exploded more than 20 miles above the surface on Friday. The explosion was strong enough to shatter windows and set off car alarms throughout the Chelyabinsk, Tumen, Sverdlovsk and Kurgan regions of Russia.

Dashboard cameras are pretty big in Russia [the practice stems from Russian motorists wishing to protect themselves against insurance scams, road rage and corrput cops shaking them down- NANESB!] and a number of them caught dramatic footbage of the fiery meteor as it fell to earth. Amateur and CCTV video from throughout the Urals also recorded the loud explosion as glass shattered and car alarms were set off.



There were no reports of fatalities, but around 1100 people were treated for cuts from flying glass as many residents in and around Chelyabinsk went to their windows to get a closer look at the bright light streaking across the sky. Along with damage to windows throughout the region, a Zinc plant on the outskirts of Chelyabinsk sustained heavy damage, with the roof and one of the walls on their warehouses collapsing. Since the temperature in Siberia is still well below zero, residents are scrambling to find anything they can use to cover up the damaged windows.

The explosion came within hours of an asteroid known as 2012 DA14 having a record near-miss with earth- the 130 ton asteroid came closer to the earth's atmosphere than most geosynchronous sattelites, according to scientists. However, the Russian meteorite and 2012 DA14 are apparently unrelated- the exploding meteorite over Siberia reportedly caught astronomers off guard.

Siberia apparently has this tendency to get smacked around by meteorites and other space debris. This would be the third significant meteorite event in Siberia since 1908. In June of that year, a comet or meteorite exploded an estimated 3-6 miled above the remote Siberian wilderness, flattening trees in an 800 square mile area. In 1947, a meteorite weighing about 70 tons impacted in the Skihote-Alin mountain range west of the Russian pacific seaport of Vladivostok.