A meteorite fell in Cuba and caused a strong explosion

A standard fireball in the sky surprised the Cubans and shakes the walls of their houses: a meteorite fell this Friday and it has disintegrated into many fragments that have spread to almost every municipality in the province of Pinar del Río, in the west of Cuba, confirmed the Ministry of Science, Technology and of the Environment (Citma) of the island.

The fall of the meteorite, which occurred around the age of 14, provoked a strong explosion preceded by a flash. The astronomical event did not cause injuries, but splinters of glbad in several houses and buildings. "It was not a bomb, I saw that it was a meteor"says a Cuban citizen in a video that has become viral and in which you can see the wake of the meteorite left in the sky.

Shortly after the event, many residents of Pinar del Río began to comment on what was happening on social networks and to post images of the black and gray stones which has had repercussions in areas such as the tourist "Mural of Prehistory", in the picturesque valley of Viñales.

As stated by the specialist Efrén Jaimez Salgado, from the National Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy of Radio Guamá, it was a meteorite "stony type"What? "he has one iron and nickel alloyand also a large amount of magnesium silicate ".

The fall of the meteorite has occurred in the municipality of Viñales, although many fragments have been scattered around the cities of Los Jazmines, Dos Hermanas, El Guajaní, near the tourist towns of Viñales and El Palmarito.

"In Viñales, several stone particles have fallen, the largest we have heard so far is between 20 and 30 centimeters on the road that leads to the fresco of prehistory, one of the attractions of the tourist destination of Pinar del Río, and left traces of this impact, "said the vice president of the board of Viñales, Osmany Moseguí

The researchers collected samples that will be subjected to chemical testing to obtain more precision on this unusual phenomenon.

At the same time of the observation in Pinar del Río, a similar incident was reported to have occurred in Matanzas (located 100 km east of Havana), where witnesses observed Incandescent sphere about one meter in diameter fell to the sea very close to the south coast of the bay, said Citma.

Cuba is set against the backdrop of fall of six other meteorites, three of them were reported in 1938, 1974 and 1994, in the cities of Artisa and Bacuranao, and in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, in the central province of Cienfuegos, said Jaimez Salgado in the official journal Granma.