Traveling at a speed of 66,000 kilometers per hour, a giant fireball entered Earth's atmosphere over Kazakhstan on February 15, 2013. At an altitude of 45 kilometers, atmospheric friction resulted in the largest portion — a 12,000-ton, 20-meter rock — to start breaking up. As fragmentation increased, so did the amount of atmospheric drag; when the object could no longer withstand the pressure, it exploded in a massive air burst 30 kilometers above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The total kinetic energy released was equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT — approximately 25 times more energy than released by the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Fortunately, most of this energy was dispersed and absorbed by the surrounding atmosphere. However, ninety seconds later, a significant shockwave reached the ground: hundreds of people were knocked off their feet, 7,200 buildings in six cities were damaged and 100,000 homeowners had to replace broken windows. Worse still, more than 1100 people were injured, most from shattered glass and some for ultraviolet burns and temporary flash blindness. The Chelyabinsk shockwave left a trail of damage nearly 200 kilometers wide.

It could have been far worse: had the meteoroid exploded at a lower altitude, its explosive force would have been more focused and concentrated; the result would have been horrific. Chelyabinsk is the only meteorite documented to have resulted in a large number of injuries. It's also the only meteorite whose final moments were so extensively documented on video: hundreds of security cameras and dash-cams recorded Chelyabinsk's descent, as well as videos of exploding windows and collapsing walls. While most of the Chelyabinsk meteoroid — which was estimated to be about 20 meters across — disintegrated in the atmosphere, several thousand small meteorites landed on Earth. The largest mass found weighs 540 kg (1,190 lbs). Offered now are more than 100 of the smallest individual meteorites that peppered the locality following the cataclysmic explosion, each sheathed within its own fusion crust acquired when plunging through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.

Average dimension/mass: 2 x 4 x 4mm and 0.47g (2.5 carats)
Dimension/mass of largest specimen:11.3 x 8.5 x 5.5mm and 1.227g (6 carats)
Total mass: 55.65 grams