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Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Ash Creek

Ash Creek is an ordinary (L6) chondrite that fell in McLennan County, Texas.

The morning of Sunday, February 15, 2009, a bright fireball was witnessed traveling SE from Austin to Fort Worth, and was even recorded by a local television news cameraman. 

According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB96), “sonic booms were widely heard for a duration of 20–30 s in the area from Hubbard to Aquilla. The fireball was bright and the meteoroid fragmented overhead near Birome, where the sonic booms were reported loudest. In Aquilla, the rumblings were likened to “a jet taking off,” and the event was described at 30–40 degrees altitude in the eastern sky”.

One witness reported window-rattling vibrations and a smoke trail, followed by the arrival of a blackened stone that rolled near his feet, and a second stone that struck a shed behind him.

The bolide’s path was determined using National Weather Service Doppler reflectivity radar, and 9.5 kg of material were recovered.

Photo: Ash Creek  meteorite. This fusion crusted individual measures approximately 3.5 cm in length. Photo © ASU Center for Meteorite Studies.

Ash Creek