Study of injuries from the Chelyabinsk airburst event
A.P. Kartashova, O.P. Popova, D.O. Glazachev, P. Jenniskens, d, V.V. Emelˈyanenko, Е.D. Podobnaya, A. Ya Skripnik
Planetary and Space Science
Available online 23 April 2018
“Highlights
• The new data on injuries from the Chelyabinsk airburst event, which complements and expands on previous data collected shortly after the event are presented.
• The results provide insight for first responders in future asteroid impacts and help to rеfine these models.
• The distribution of injuries is in general in agreement with the result of numerical simulations of the Chelyabinsk event radiation and overpressure.”
“The ∼20-m sized asteroid that entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 19 km/s over the Chelyabinsk Region of Russia on February 15, 2013, broke and deposited ∼500 kt of kinetic energy at 45–25 km altitude, causing an airburst strong enough to create widespread glass damage. The shockwave hit a densely populated area. More than a thousand people asked for medical assistance at hospitals. In this paper, we analyze the available information about how many and what type of injuries were sustained. We combine previously collected data from government reports and from phone and internet surveys shortly after the event with newly collected data from local hospitals. As expected, the percentage of injuries was highest near the asteroid trajectory, but surprisingly the type of injury (cuts or bruises) do not show dependence on the distance from the asteroid trajectory. Results are compared to asteroid impact risk assessment models. The results provide insight for first responders in future asteroid impacts and help to rеfine these models.”
