Russian Meteor weighed 10,000 tons and released energy equal to 30 Hiroshima Atomic Bombs!

Remember the meteor over Russia that exploded?  It was a once in a century event.  Last time such a massive meteor of this size hit the earth was in 1908!  And unlike the initial estimate of 10 tons that the scientists had of this meteor; it is now believed to have been 10,000 tons.  And, it released energy equal to 30 Atom Bombs that exploded over Hiroshima!  Heck, a little closer to Earth and the impact could have been really devastating!

New estimates reported by NASA indicate that the meteor that rocked Chelyabinsk, Russia last week was the largest to hit the earth in more than a century. While early estimates placed the 55-foot meteor in the 10-ton range, the actual size was closer to 10,000 tons, and the energy released during the event was in the neighborhood of 500 kilotons. As The Wall Street Journal points out, that’s more than 30 times the size of the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima. The previous largest meteor impact was the 1908 event in Tunguska, Siberia.

The Voice of Russia reports that a total of 1,200 people have been injured and 3,724 buildings damaged by the impact, with a combined 200,000 square meters (2.15 million square feet) of shattered glass resulting from the shockwave. Damage is estimated to total 1 billion rubles, or about $33 million. (link)

Here are some of the best videos of the meteor.
Read Quote of Thomas Foster’s answer to Meteor in Russia (February 2013): What are the best videos of the Russian meteor? on Quora