Meteorite crashes, explodes in Nicaragua capital, produces earthquake-like shaking
Apparent area of impact (El 19 Digital)
September 8th, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) What Nicaraguan authorities are calling a meteorite crashed near the airport in the capital city of Managua on Saturday night, officials said.
“A meteorite crashed Saturday night near the airport in Managua, causing an explosion that was felt strongly throughout the capital,” the Nicaraguan government said.
“We believe it was a meteorite, we saw the impact crater left in the ground,” said Wilfredo Strauss of the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies, according to the AFP news agency.
The apparent impact site is located on KM 9.5 of the Carretera Norte, in a field about 300 meters from the Camino Real Hotel, near Managua’s international airport.
At first, the impact was thought to have been caused by an explosion of unknown origin or a strong earthquake.
The government reported that the impact did not cause any damage as the impact zone is in an empty field, and said that international flights are following their normal schedule.
Nicaraguan authorities believe that the meteorite was a fragment of the asteroid “RC 2014” that was scheduled to pass as close as 40,000 kilometers from Earth on Sunday – just one-tenth the distance to the moon.
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