Two Polish meteorite hunters, Filip Nikodem and Andrzej Owczarzak, have recovered what they believe to be a fragment of the Kaali Meteorite, a large body which impacted the Estonian island of Saaremaa about 3500 years ago. The piece is reported to weigh about 40 kg, with a second fragment weighing 15 kg also found. The largest potential fragment of the meteorite discovered to date weighed 5.7 kg, and was found by Filip Nikodem in the spring of 2024.
A 40 kg potential fragment of the Kaali Meteorite found in Estonia by two Polish Meteorite Hunters. Z głową w gwiazdach/Facebook.
The Kaali Impact Structures are a series of nine circular crater lakes on the island of Saaremaa, the largest of which has a diameter of 110 m and a depth of 22 m. These are thought to have been caused by an object with a mass of between 20 and 80 tonnes entering the atmosphere at a velocity of somewhere between 10 and 20 km per second, and exploding in a fireball between 10 and 5 km above the ground. This explosion is thought to have largely vaporised the bolide, as well as removing about 81 000 m³ of rock on the ground, and incinerating vegetation up to 6 km from the impact site.
The lake in the main Kaali Meteorite Crater on Saaremaa Island. The crater is about 110 m across, but the lake only occupies the central part of it. Wikimedia Commons.
This is thought to have happened about 3500 years ago, when the island was occupied by a Bronze Age population, although attempts to date the site and meteorite fragments from it have produced dates of between 5600 and 400 BC. A Bronze Age arrowhead made from meteoric iron which was found in Switzerland in the 1870s has been linked to the Kaali meteorites on the basis of its metallurgy, making a date of around 1500 BC more plausible.
(a) Overview of the Mörigen arrowhead (A/7396). Note adhering bright sediment material. Remnants of an older label on the left of the sample number. Total length is 39.3 mm. ( b) Side view of the Mörigen arrowhead. Layered texture is well visible. Point is to the right. Thomas Schüpbach in Hofmann et al. (2023).
Prior to 2023, the largest fragment of meteorite found at the Kaali sites weighed 6.21 g. However, in the autumn of that year Filip Nikodem obtained a search permit for the area, and, using a metal detector, found a series of pieces of iron which he believed to be meteoric in origin. These were handed to the Estonian National Heritage Board, who sent them to the University of Tartu, where a rapid X-ray fluorescence analysis found that the iron pieces contained between 0.6% and 4.8% nickel, as well as traces of titanium and vanadium, which is typical of meteoric iron.
The four pieces of meteoric iron handed to the Estonian National Heritage Board by Filip Nikodem in 2023. Kristo Oks/University of Tartu.
In the spring of 2024, Filip Kikodem returned to the Kaali Lakes, collecting several more fragments with a total mass of 10.5 kg, the largest of which weighed 5.7 kg, making it (at that time) potentially the largest chunk of the Kaali bolide ever discovered. However, despite requests from the Estonian National Heritage Board, these pieces have never been surrendered to them. Instead, the Estonian authorities believe that the pieces were taken to Poland, where they are being analysed at a Polish university. Furthermore, the National Heritage Board received a letter from a lawyer in Poland, asserting Nikodem's ownership rights over the meteorite fragments.
A 5.7 kg possible meteorite fragment found by Filip Nikodem at Kaali Lakes in the spring of 2024. Filip Nikodem.
In the autumn of 2024 Filip Nikodem returned to Kaali Lakes, this time accompanied by meteorite hunter Andrzej Owczarzak, who did not posses a permit to search in Estonia, and was therefore in breach of Estonian heritage laws. At this time concerns were raised by the Estonian newspaper Saarte Hääl, which observed that the original search permit had been given to Filip Nikodem in relation to a two week project run by the University of Tartu in 2017, in which metal detectorists were given a short training course by the university then allowed to collect fragments for a display at a visitor centre, with the collectors being allowed to keep some fragments as a reward.
Saarte Hääl also noted that suspiciously large chunks of 'Kaali Meteorite' had begun to be offered for sale in Poland, and that some Polish enthusiasts had raised concerns that these might be fragments of the more common Morasko Meteorite, which fell near Potsdam about 5000 years ago. The newspaper also noted that Estonian law provides no specific protection for meteorites found in the country, although there are some restrictions upon where a metal detector can be used.
Following the announcement of these discoveries, Jüri Plado of the University of Tartu applied for funding for a study on the feasibility of changing the law to protect meteorites found in Estonia, reasoning that such large objects would be a significant piece of national heritage and ought to be studied at an institute within the country, but this application was rejected.
Local farmers talked to by Saarte Hääl stated that the Poles had shown them permits and promised to take any material found to the University of Tartu. However, several expressed doubts that the iron found was in fact meteoric, as it came from shallow depths on farmland, likely to have been disturbed since the Bronze Age, and resembled bog iron (impure iron deposits which precipitate out of solution in boggy soils). The newspaper contacted Kristo Oks of the Estonian National Heritage Board, who confirmed that it would be impossible to tell the difference between bog iron and meteorites without laboratory analysis.
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