Here's a good follow up wth more details of how a stony can survive ...and a picture of a simulated test.

http://space.newscientist.com/articl...t-mystery.html

The researchers shot glass beads a few millimetres across from a gun at speeds of up to several kilometres per second through the air.

......

.... when the team simulated higher speeds by increasing the ambient air pressure, the surrounding shock wave was strong enough to act as a barrier, preventing the fragments from dispersing and keeping them flying in a dense swarm instead.

In the tests, these swarms still packed enough punch to produce craters, so Schultz and his colleagues think such a swarm from a shattered stony meteorite could be responsible for the Carancas crater." "


Oh, and here's a great site showing the path the meteorite took with a map of the terrain....elevation 3800 meters! {Possibly the high elevation prevented further erosion - (my opinion).}

Also a PHOTO of the contrail taken by a kid who witnessed it.

And a great close up of the crater.

SEE HERE: http://www.meteoriteguy.com/carancasfall.htm


G^2