You probably remember the Chelyabinsk meteor—a colossal fireball that lit up the Russian sky on February 15, 2013.
This meteor, which exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia, caused widespread damage.
The shockwave rattled buildings, shattered windows, and sent more than 1,500 people to hospitals with injuries.
But the spectacle of the explosion wasn’t the end of the story.
It left behind a puzzling and unique phenomenon in its wake: snow carrots.
While most meteorites leave behind impact craters, the Chelyabinsk meteor followed a different path.
As its fragments plummeted toward Earth, they didn’t carve deep craters into the snow. Instead, they landed in curious funnel-shaped structures with walls made of tightly packed snow.
Geologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences were called to investigate, and what they uncovered was as strange as it was unexpected.
Snow Carrots: A Strange Discovery
Three days after the meteor explosion, researchers set out to search for meteor fragments in the snow-covered landscape.
Their task was made challenging by the over 60 cm (24 inches) of snow blanketing the area.
The scientists, armed with cross-country skis, combed through the terrain for meteor fragments.
They eventually recovered about 450 samples of meteorite material, ranging in size from 3 to 6 cm.
But what made the discovery truly bizarre was the fact that these fragments were not scattered across the snow.
Instead, they were found inside conical snow structures, which the researchers dubbed “snow carrots.”
These 25 cm-long structures were essentially funnel-shaped snow formations, with the dark meteorite fragments nestled inside.
The appearance of these snow carrots left the scientists scratching their heads. How could meteor fragments end up in such distinct shapes, particularly when meteorites typically form impact craters?
And why was the snow compacted into such peculiar shapes around the fragments?
Theories About the Formation of Snow Carrots
Initially, two primary theories emerged to explain the formation of these strange snow structures.
- Compaction by Impact: One theory suggested that the fluffy snow was compacted by the sheer force of the falling meteor fragments. The meteorite’s impact might have compressed the snow around it, creating the funnel-like shape.
- Heat-Induced Snow Melting: The second hypothesis was that the meteorite fragments might have been hot enough—due to their passage through the atmosphere—that they partially melted the surrounding snow upon impact. In this scenario, the heat from the fragments could have caused the snow to recrystallize at a higher temperature, forming coarser, denser snow in the shape of the cones.
To test these ideas, geologists turned to a variety of models, experiments, and simulations to simulate the meteorite’s journey from the upper atmosphere to the snowy ground.
Their investigation revealed that while both theories were plausible at first glance, one stood out as more scientifically likely.
A Surprising Twist: The Real Cause of Snow Carrots
It’s easy to assume that meteorites, especially those that are large and explosive, would retain their heat after entering Earth’s atmosphere.
After all, they’ve been traveling through space at incredible speeds.
But a team of researchers recently put this assumption to the test—and the results were surprising.
In a paper presented at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas, a group of international scientists sought to recreate the conditions of the Chelyabinsk meteor’s impact.
They conducted simulations that considered different meteor fragment sizes and their behavior during atmospheric entry.
The results are illuminating.
The Cold, Hard Truth: Fragments Were Too Cold to Melt the Snow
The scientists began by modeling two different meteorite fragment sizes: 40 grams and 10 kilograms.
After the meteor’s catastrophic explosion, the fragments were significantly diminished due to atmospheric ablation, losing about 90 percent of their mass during their high-speed descent through the atmosphere.
The fragments then cooled rapidly, with most of them reaching a temperature of about minus 20 degrees Celsius by the time they struck the snow.
This temperature was far too cold for the meteorites to have caused any significant melting of the snow.
When the smaller 40-gram fragment—about the size of a walnut—impacted the snow, it was traveling at around 28 meters per second.
Similarly, a larger 10-kg fragment would have been traveling at about 74 meters per second, resembling the size of a tennis ball upon impact.
Despite the apparent violence of the impact, these fragments would not have been hot enough to melt the surrounding snow.
The shockwave from the meteor’s impact was powerful enough, but the temperature was too low to trigger the partial snow melting that was hypothesized earlier.
Instead of heat, it appears the meteorite’s kinetic energy and speed were the primary causes behind the formation of the snow carrots.
The meteorite fragments drove into the snow at high velocity, pushing the snow around them into compact, funnel-like structures.
As the meteor penetrated the snow, it compressed the snow in the walls of the funnels, causing the snow’s density to increase by as much as 18 percent in some areas.
This process would have led to the formation of the 3.4 cm-thick walls of the snow carrots. These walls were made of snow that had been densely compacted, not melted.
Understanding the Science of Impact in Porous Substances
The research conducted by these scientists wasn’t just an attempt to solve the mystery of the snow carrots—it also provides valuable insights into planetary science.
By studying how meteorite fragments interact with porous substances like snow, scientists can gain a better understanding of how impact events might affect other planets and celestial bodies.
For example, NASA’s Stardust mission—which studied comet dust in aerogel—has shown that similar conical structures can form when high-speed particles collide with porous materials.
When comet dust from the Stardust mission hit aerogel at a speed of 6 km/s, it left behind elongated, conical structures.
This observation helps scientists draw parallels between meteor impacts on Earth and those on other planets or moons with less dense atmospheres.
By studying impact events on porous materials like snow and aerogel, researchers are gaining deeper insights into the forces at play when space debris collides with planetary surfaces.
These insights could have profound implications for understanding future planetary exploration and the impact dynamics of meteorites on other worlds.
Snow Carrots: More Than Just a Meteorite Oddity
While the formation of snow carrots might seem like a strange curiosity, the real value of this discovery lies in the scientific questions it raises.
It challenges our assumptions about meteorite impacts and provides a clearer picture of how objects from space interact with Earth’s environment.
The mystery of the snow carrots is just one example of how even the most peculiar and unexpected phenomena can lead to groundbreaking scientific revelations.
By combining real-world observations with cutting-edge simulations, scientists have shed light on an enigmatic event that captured the world’s attention in 2013.
The snow carrots left behind by the Chelyabinsk meteor are no longer just an oddity of nature.
Instead, they are a key to unlocking our understanding of meteor impacts and their broader implications.
Conclusion: The Chelyabinsk Meteor’s Lasting Impact
The Chelyabinsk meteor may have exploded with tremendous force, causing damage and injuries in Russia, but its legacy has proven to be far more than just a destructive spectacle.
The discovery of the snow carrots—and the subsequent scientific investigation into their formation—has provided valuable insights into impact physics, the behavior of meteors in Earth’s atmosphere, and the dynamics of planetary impacts.
As we continue to study these strange formations, we may unlock even more mysteries about the forces at play when objects from space meet our planet.
The snow carrots of Chelyabinsk may have been a brief and strange phenomenon, but their lasting contribution to science is anything but fleeting.
Sources:
- io9
- NASA’s Stardust Mission
- Russian Academy of Sciences
- 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
