Falling Meteorite Cause of Mysterious Blast Near Nicaragua International Airport

The mysterious explosion that occurred over the weekend near Managua’s Augusto C. Sandino International Airport was caused by a falling meteorite that could have become detached from the 2014RC asteroid when it came near Earth, Nicaraguan officials said.

“We are convinced that this was a meteorite,” the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies, or Ineter, expert Wilfried Strauch said.

The impact came at 11:04 p.m. on Saturday, Ineter said.

The blast occurred when asteroid 2014RC was some 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) from Earth, closer than the distance of communications satellites, officials said.

“We knew that an asteroid (2014RC) was going to pass close to Earth, above Arizona, so it could be that a piece of that asteroid fell here, since it came from the same area that the asteroid passed through,” the Astronomical Observatory of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, Managua, or UNAN-Managua, astronomer Humberto Saballos said.

Before midnight Saturday, the population of Managua was astonished by the sound of a huge blast, whose origin remained unknown for some time – some Managua residents thought it felt like an earthquake – and it wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that scientists were able to determine its cause.

The meteorite opened a crater some 12 meters (39 feet) in diameter and 5.5 meters (18 feet) deep, and had a direction of entry of 50 degrees west-northwest, geologist William Martinez said.

A strong odor of gunpowder and a seismic wave that broke the sound barrier were other characteristics that made them think they were dealing with a meteorite, Ineter scientists said.

The meteorite fell on an uninhabited part of Managua, but close to a military base and west of Nicaragua’s main airport.

Nicaraguan scientists are seeking the help of scientists in the United States and other countries to determine the size and composition of the meteorite.

A similar event was investigated in western Nicaragua in 1997, when scientists also came to the conclusion that it was a meteorite, Strauch said.

Published in Latino Daily News