Meteorite Versus Human

 

On this date in 1954, thirty-four-year-old Ann Hodges became the first modern confirmed case of a meteorite striking a human. Asleep under quilts on her sofa in her Sylacauga, Alabama home one afternoon, Hodges was hit by a grapefruit-sized meteorite that crashed through the roof and ceiling of her house, ricocheting off a large wooden radio and impacting her body, causing a large football-shaped bruise on the left side of her abdomen. When her husband returned home from work, there were so many spectators it was difficult to gain entrance to his home.

In a 2018 Wired magazine article, “The Mad Scramble to Claim the World’s Most Coveted Meteorite” they calculated the odds of a meteorite landing in a particular spot as 1 in 182 trillion. Ironically, Hodge’s house was across the road from the Comet drive-in theater.

More images at Sylacauga's meteor

Seismic Significance

 

On this day in 1908, a giant fireball, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet flattened about eighty million trees near the Stony Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia, in one of the most sparsely populated areas on Earth. It is said to be the largest impact event in recorded history. Tremors were recorded at a German seismic station more than 3,000 miles away. Because of the remoteness of the area, the first scientific expedition did not occur until 1927. They found no evidence of a meteorite impact and theories from scientists and artists abound to this day. Over one hundred years later, no trees have returned in the direct spot of the blast.