B612 Impact Video 4-20-14 H264 from Spine Films on Vimeo.

Watch Translations of the video in Spanish or Cantonese.

Between 2000 and 2013, a network of sensors that monitors Earth around the clock listening for the infrasound signature of nuclear detonations detected 26 explosions on Earth ranging in energy from 1 to 600 kilotons – all caused not by nuclear explosions, but rather by asteroid impacts. These findings were recently released from the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, which operates the network.

To put this data in perspective, the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945 exploded with an energy impact of 15 kilotons. While most of these asteroids exploded too high in the atmosphere to do serious damage on the ground, the evidence is important in estimating the frequency of a potential “city-killer-size” asteroid.

A list of the impacts shown in the video:

• 8/25/2000 (1-9 kilotons) North Pacific Ocean
• 4/23/2001 (1-9 kilotons) North Pacific Ocean
• 3/9/2002 (1-9 kilotons) North Pacific Ocean
• 6/6/2002 (20+ kilotons) Mediterranean Sea
• 11/10/2002 (1-9 kilotons) North Pacific Ocean
• 9/3/2004 (20+ kilotons) Southern Ocean
• 10/7/2004 (10-20 kilotons) Indian Ocean
• 10/26/2005 (1-9 kilotons) South Pacific Ocean
• 11/9/2005 (1-9 kilotons) New South Wales, Australia
• 2/6/2006 (1-9 kilotons) South Atlantic Ocean
• 5/21/2006 (1-9 kilotons) South Atlantic Ocean
• 6/7/2007 (1-9 kilotons) Finland
• 8/9/2006 (1-9 kilotons) Indian Ocean
• 9/2/2006 (1-9 kilotons) Indian Ocean
• 10/2/2006 (1-9 kilotons) Arabian Sea
• 12/9/2006 (10-20 kilotons) Egypt
• 9/22/2007 (1-9 kilotons) Indian Ocean
• 12/26/2007 (1-9 kilotons) South Pacific Ocean
• 10/7/2008 (1-9 kilotons) Sudan
• 10/8/2009 (20+ kilotons) South Sulawesi, Indonesia
• 9/3/2010 (10-20 kilotons) South Pacific Ocean
• 12/25/2010 (1-9 kilotons) Tasman Sea
• 4/22/2012 (1-9 kilotons) California, USA
• 2/15/2013, (20+ kilotons) Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia
• 4/21/2013 (1-9 kilotons) Santiago del Estero, Argentina
• 4/30/2013 (10-20 kilotons) North Atlantic Ocean

For more information on this data, please check out our Impact Video FAQ:  
English FAQ  | Spanish FAQ

You can also read or download the press release about today’s event here.