Hamburg, Michigan, USA
2 min read
The Hamburg Fireball above the GM Warren Tech Center
January 16, 2018 8:08 PM EST – A meteor entered the atmosphere over southeast Michigan, and exploded over Livingston County. Dozens of fragments of the meteor were found scattered across the lakes below in Hamburg Township, and there are many more are waiting to be found.
| Date/Time: | 01/17/2018 01:08:31 UTC |
| Location: | Hamburg Township, Michigan, USA |
| Reference Coordinates: | 42.451°N 83.857°W Google Map |
| Reference Altitude | 19.73 km above sea level |
| Energy / Mass Estimate: | 0.0045kt / 150kg |
| Entry Speed: | 15.83 km/s |
| Bearing: | 301.56° NW |
| Slope: | 23.86° from vertical |
| Event Source(s): | Peter Brown Research Paper Meteoritical Society Bulletin LPI Conference Paper Utah Collection Page ARES Page AMS Event 168-2018 |
The Event That Started It All
The Hamburg strewn field is only 30 km from my home in Hartland, Michigan. Although I didn’t find any Hamburg meteorites (yet!), it was the Hamburg event that sparked my interest in meteor fireballs and eventually led to the creation of Strewnify.com.
In addition to capturing the fireball flash on my home security cameras, I was also able to obtain a great video from General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. I also helped to write an article for the GM internal news site, Socrates. It would be two years before I finally got the video released for public viewing, but the Socrates article made the 2nd most clicked article of 2018! This video was also very helpful in determining the meteor trajectory, in the early days of my research in 2018.
Don’t miss our feature article, written by local meteorite enthusiast and friend of the author:
The Hamburg Meteor
by Tony Licata
And check out this great video by Chris Cooper, that captures the excitement and comraderie of meteorite hunting:
YouTube Video:
Recent Meteorite finds from Michigan’s Meteor 1-16-2018
by Chris Cooper
Event Videos
The videos shown here were used to calculate the trajectory in the StrewnLAB bulletin, attached below.
Published with permission from GM Global Security and GM Communication.
Data & Reports
You will find the latest StrewnLAB Bulletin, strewn field KMZ file, StrewnZones, and find data for the Hamburg Meteor attached below. Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
Additional data and archived reports are available at data.strewnify.com. For access, please contact Jim Goodall.
The author and founder of Strewnify.com, an automotive controls engineer, with a passion for physics.
Hancock, Michigan, USA | james.a.goodall@gmail.com | +1 586 709 5888
