TANXI meteorite fall (H6, >10.7 kg) in Tanxi (檀溪镇), Pujiang County (浦江县), Jinhua (金华市), Zhejiang Province (浙江省), China at ~17:48:42- (CST)/ 9:48:42 (UT) on 15 December 2022

Last update: 21 January 2023

Meteorite fall (H6) in and around the villages Maodian, Chengtou and Siqian, within Tanxi Township, Pujiang County, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China. According to media reports it fell around 17:48:42 (CST) / 9:48:42 (UTC) on 15 December 2022. Initially three masses were found. Later other finds (egg- to fist-sized specimens) had been reported inofficially, at least three to four masses by 21 December 2022, like a 487.3-gram mass which has been found in a water-filled impact hole at the edge of a rice field near location 29°37’53.6″N 119°55’44.3″E. Another ~420-gram mass was reportedly found around location 29°37’51.8″N 119°56’27.9″E and a larger meteorite mass was found at location 29°37’32.4″N 119°56’46.9″E on 31 December 2022. Furthermore, there are unconfirmed social media reports of a 1385-gram mass, a 759.8-gram mass and a 692.8-gram mass which have reportedly been found as well. Apparently also several smaller specimens have been found. On 16 January 2023 the meteorite fall was officially registered as Tanxi (H6, S1, W0) in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database.

The first meteorite mass (~355 g, ~8×5 cm, H6 chondrite) was found by Wang Yinglai (王英来) from the Chengtou Village (城头村) at location 29°37’43.9″N 119°55’52.2″E in the Tanxi Township, Pujiang. 79-year-old Wang Yinglai reports: “I had just finished eating and was sitting in front of my house when I suddenly heard a sound like thunder, and then a stone fell and landed on the concrete floor in front of my house, about 20 meters away from me.” The meteorite was taken to Hangzhou by his son-in-law. A 5-gram sample has been cut off, and the staff of the Natural Resources and Planning Bureau of Pujiang County sent it to the Third Geological Brigade of Zhejiang Province for testing. A Ms. Zhou, a villager living nearby the impact location, reports she heard a loud noise, like a tire exploding on a cart, and the windows were shaking. Later, she heard that the windows of villagers and several street lamps were shattered. The impact dent in the concrete is about 10 cm wide, with a smaller and deeper dent in the centre (~3×5 cm wide). The attempted removal of the impact dent in the concrete by cutting it out was stopped by Wang Yinglai and the villagers because they didn’t want to have the impact location destroyed. Later the local police cordoned off the impact site.

The ~355-gram mass at its find location.

Video: unknown (16 December 2022)

355-gram mass. Video: unknown

The ~355-gram mass from Chengtou Village.

The ~355-gram mass from Chengtou Village.

The ~355-gram mass from Chengtou Village.

Video: KNEWS (16 December 2022)

Villagers in Siqian Village (寺前村) 29°37’36.6″N 119°56’43.2″E, Tanxi Township (檀溪镇) found another meteorite (~77.9 gram) which hit the gate of villager Chen Qunhong’s house. At the time of the fall Chen Qunhong’s family was eating in the restaurant next door and heard a loud noise in the sky. Chen Qunhong (陈群红) : “It was like an explosion. The doors and windows of the house shook. We thought it was somewhere. The gas tank at home exploded, so I didn’t care, and continued to eat.” A minute or two later, the sound of glass being smashed came from Chen Qunhong’s front yard, so the whole family ran out to check and found a hole in the glass window about 2 meters high above the gate. “It is double-glazed, and the outer layer of glass was smashed with a hole, and the aluminum alloy decorative crosspiece was also smashed into a small hole. I looked around and there was nothing there.” Because Chen Qunhong’s house was on the side of the road, he thought the glass window was broken by a stone that was crushed by a roadside car, or a child playing marbles mischievously, so he continued to eat. After the meal, the family went outside the house, cleaned up the broken glass all over the floor, and picked up a stone by the door. He inspected the stone and later a friend came to tell him that a meteorite had fallen in Chengtou Village. Then Chen Qunhong knew what he had in his hand. Chen Qunhong picked up the meteorite about 10 minutes after its fall and reports that it was not warm or hot when he touched it.

The meteorite Chen Qunhong found.

Video: 杜行

Video: 杜行

Photo: 杜行

The hole in the glass above the entrance door. Photo: A大俠的剣與縄

The biggest mass (~12 x 8 cm) was reportedly found in Maodian Village (毛店村) at location 29°37’59.6″N 119°55’57.5″E. Villager Chen Genhua (陈根花), in her 60s, and her husband heard a loud noise (“The sound was like thunder.”) while taking a walk after dinner, after they had passed the bridge from Maodian Village to the town government of Tanxi Town, they saw a flash of white light lasting about five to six seconds and went on walking. Later they found a pit (1-2 cm deep, ~12-15 cm wide) on the side of the road with a black stone in the pit in the asphalt, about 200 metres away from the village. They kicked the rock to the side and went on. After returning home, at around 7 pm they read in a WeChat group that people in the village nearby had “picked up meteorites”, so they went to pick up the stone (“When I picked it up, it felt a little warm, a little warm.”) and weighed it. It weighed about 1.7 kilograms. Chen Genhua wrapped the stone in a green plastic bag and put it in a wedding candy box. The impact dent in the road has been cut out.

The 1.7-kg mass

The 1.7-kg mass

The 1.7-kg mass

Video: China Aerospace (15 December 2022)

Video: The Paper (17 December 2022)

Chen Genhua showing the fall location of her find.

Reported impact dent on the road in Maodian Village.

The two fragments of a 487.3-gram specimen

Recovery of the meteorite in the rice field. Video: 赵哥★赵志强 (4 January 2023)

Recovery of the meteorite in the rice field. Video: 赵哥★赵志强 (4 January 2023)

Video: 石头猎人张梅子 (20 December 2022)

A larger mass (1385 g), reportedly found on 27 December 2022

The meteorite was reportedly found in the high grass around location 29°38’03.0″N 119°55’33.6″E

Video: 不悔盆景 (27 December 2022)

Video: 不悔盆景 (27 December 2022)

Video: 王梓鉴 (Wang Zijian), 27 December 2022

Recovery of a meteorite reportedly found in the morning of 31 December 2022. Video by 陈队长陨石馆 (31 December 2022, 03:46)

On 17 January 2023 it was reported that another 981-gram meteorite was found in the attic of Xiao Zhang’s grandmother’s three-storey house in Maodian Village, near a place where another meteorite had been found before.
In the afternoon of 15 January 2023 Xiao Zhang’s mother and aunt went up to the attic to get charcoal for heating. On the stairs the grandmother saw that there was light in the attic and then she saw a hole in the roof which was as wide as two adult fists. Then she saw three meteorite fragments (742, 203, 29 grams) and a few crumbs (7 g) on the floor, near a small impact dent. The meteorite had pierced the roof and broke into three fragments. It is inofficially described as the thirteenth mass of the Tanxi meteorite fall.

Video: 猎石者 (16-17 January 2023)

Video by 都市快报 (17 January 2023)

Video: 清雅轩家庭农场 (17 January 2023)

The bolide

Video recordings

Video of the bolide’s glare. [UPDATE 30 Dec (corrected camera location)] The video was recorded from location ~29°37’07.1″N 119°54’16.2″E in Wailuo village (外罗村吗), 3.17 km southwest of the find location of the 1.7-kilogram mass. The detonation boom can be heard only 24 seconds [17:49:06] after the beginning of the luminous trail’s light was recorded by the camera [17:48:42]). Video: China Aerospace (15 December 2022)

Video of the end of the bolide’s luminous trail recorded in a south-southeastern direction from Shanyedu·Tangwanli Farm Camp (山也度·塘湾里营), around location 30°06’20.1″N 119°36’34.1″E, near Dongqiao Town (洞桥镇), Fuyang (富阳). The camera location is about 61.17 km northwest of the find location of the 1.7-kilogram mass. Video: 中国蓝新闻

The bolide in the southwest, filmed from 平湖秋月 (Pinghu Qiuyue) at the shore of West Lake in Hangzhou. The person recorded the video because the shop nearby played her/his favorite song and she/he wanted it to be the background sound of the video. Video: 逆风5250

Bolide recorded from the section of Jiaxing-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway

Video of Ms. Ji’s (季女士) dashcam in her car passing Qiushi Elevated Road in Hangzhou, about 81.8 km north-northeast of Tanxi.

The bolide, filmed with a dashcam from Hangzhou city.

The bolide recorded from the south Shaoxing, Zhejiang.