The crater at Eliastorp.

Introduction

During the search after meteorites created when a meteor broke up in the air south of Bygdsiljum july the 12th 2004 we finally found a small crater. So far we haven't found any good explanation of the crater except a meteorite. unfortunately we haven't either been able to find a meteorite.
The search area we were looking through that evening was defined by the coordinates of three explosions detected by the IRF infra sound measuring network and is given with an accuracy of +/- 1.5 km. By lining up the extreme path that passed through all three explosions and adding 3km on both sides we defined an area of highest probability. The crater was found on the souther border of that area.

So far we have searched the ground extensively up to 50m from the crater for most of the forward direction and about 10m backwards. There are a small slice we haven't checked yet so the hope isn't out yet.

The size is about 15-20 cm in diameter, 5 cm deep with ejected sand and gravels 20-30 cm around the sides. In the central crater there were fine sand in the top layer and three larger stones left (relatively speaking). In the material thrown up were some gravel a couple of cm in size. It is almost perfect circular and made in a hard packed gravel road in the wood. The road is made for bringing out timber and not as hard as a well built road for traffic. As a test I threw a fistsized rock as hard as I could into the ground and it bounced back 5-10 cm. All I managed to do was a 1.5 cm deep impression of the rock. I haven't found any chips knocked off a possible meteorite but I have one or two small rocks with possible fresh fractured surfaces.
We took some pictures before we tried to dig out a part of the crater, but the loose sand in the crater were only a few centimeters deep. No meteorite there.

The surface is too hard for an animal to dig and the "ejecta" is too smoothly spread. (birds clean their feathers in similar sized pits but always in dry sand and dust and not in gravel)
Something hitting from a passing car or truck would drag the material along the road.
An explosive charge wouldn't leave the nice rim of ejected material in such a shallow pit.

The only non meteorite explanation I could come up with is a human trying to make a fake crater, but it is located in a rather isolated place.

Some pictures of the crater and the surroundings


A meteorite crater in the middle of the road?
Close up of the crater

The crater in a different angle
The crater in a different angle

The search grid
Another picture of the woods

We digged out the bottom and it isn't there

Internal links

  • (planned) Background, witness reports and description of IRF infra sound system
  • The reward we offer for finding the meteorite. (Swedish)
  • (planned) Maps over the area
  • (planned) Coordinated searchareas
  • (planned) Descriptions of the meteorite we will find :-)
Copyright by Göran Axelsson