[Nathan Zachary]

Then where's the crater?

If a big meteor struck the earth with that much energy there would be devastation like the one which hit Syberia at the turn of the last century.

[LIConFem]

The one that "hit" Siberia (Tunguska??) didn't actually hit. It exploded before impact. Perhaps this did the same.

Can't really say, 'cause I wasn't there...

[DBrow]

See my 66. The bolide came in, blew up, and at that time transferred most of it's energy to the air, making a big boom. Then, small chunks (meteorites) hit a frozen lake at much lower energy (they would have fallen ballistically at some terminal velocity).

Meteor Crater was different- that was a chunk of nickel-iron that did NOT blow up (and transfer energy to the air), but hit Earth and made a sizeable crater. Anyone within sixty miles or more would have been killed. It would have destroyed a city and it's burbs.

BTW, 1 kiloton is 3.08E12 foot-pounds and Hiroshima was, I think, 12 kilotons. So if you know the weight of your car and how fast it is going, you can calculate how many Hiroshimas of kinetic energy your car has at that speed.

Or, if you observe a bolide and can figure its mass and speed from its entry orbit, you can figure the kinetic energy out in Hiroshimas (or joules or foot-pounds). If it blows up in the air and fragments fall ballistically (which is what usually happens) you can approximate the energy spent in the air.

[El Gato]

If a big meteor struck the earth with that much energy there would be devastation like the one which hit Syberia at the turn of the last century.

That one didn't leave a crater. It was an air burst, but apparently one not all that high up.

If this one was still intact when it hit that mountain, there should be crater. It was only earlier this week, it's about as far north as you can be and still be in Europe, and is not a real densely populated area. Might take a while to get up there, even with an aircraft, to look for the crater.