Tremors in B’lore were due to meteorite impact

BAGALORE: The Friday morning tremors experienced by south Bangaloreans has been attributed to a meteorite shower in Hosur taluk, according to preliminary investigations conducted by a combined team of Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Forensic Science Laboratory, Chennai.

The meteorites slammed into roads and agricultural fields in the two villages of Attakuruki and Kamanadody in Hosur taluk in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu.

On Friday morning, villagers of these sleepy villages woke up to thunderous explosions which left them numb. Krishnagiri District Revenue Officer, N Nagarajan, told the DNA that in four different locations in the two villages the meteorites left craters varying from 1.5 feet to four feet in diameter. Both the villages are about 20 Kms from Hosur.

The villagers reported about seeing fiery trails descending down, dangerously close to their houses.

One of the objects crashed in the middle of a village road causing a four-feet wide crater. At least one was reported to have fallen into an agricultural field leaving behind a small crater in the slushy ground.

A senior team from the Forensic Science laboratory in Tamil Nadu, which arrived at the scene about 28 hours after the shower, was found picking up the pieces from the remains of the “stones from the skies”.

The team is taking the samples back to their laboratories to analyse their chemical composition.

Nagarajan said that they had received a fax letter from GSI, Chennai, soon after the incident. The GSI director in Chennai had issued parameters to the district officials to positively confirm that the fiery shower was indeed that of meteorites.