A screenshot from the video of the meteor prank, suspected to have been shot by the perpetrator of the hoax.
RIGA — A giant crater formed supposedly formed by the impact of a meteorite was a hoax, Latvian geologists said Monday.
The group of experts traveled to the site, located in the Mazsalaca region not far from the Estonian border, and after a nearly two-hour inspection concluded that the crater was man-made and the blackened scar on the bottom the result of a chemical explosion.
Ilgonis Vilks, an astronomer at the University of Latvia, told Baltic Reports that the crater was too small, that there was no scattered mud as one would expect from a high-powered collision, and that the crater itself was not uniform.
“There was no evidence of a very high temperature, too,” Vilks said. “There are still blades of grass in the soil inside the crater.”
Cell phone company claims responsibility
Monday evening the cell phone company Tele2 claimed responsibility for the fake meteor crash, telling the LETA news agency that it was trying to galvanize Latvians.
“Our goal is to inspire the people of Latvia,” Janis Sprogis, Tele2 marketing director told LETA. “As we can see, with this Latvia made the news all over the world, everyone wants to know about Latvia, and this is not because of the crisis, the hard times and so, but because there is something creative and exciting happening here. It is a unique achievement and part of our communication.”
Sprogis said that Tele2 would compensate the state for all expenses it incurred investigating the fake meteor site.
A worldwide sensation
If indeed Tele2’s admission of responsibility is true, the company’s goal of putting Latvia in headlines around the world succeeded.
The hoax, which was likely pulled off by the same person who filmed the burning crater for a YouTube video brought a wave of international attention to Latvia sending journalists and gawkers flocking to the site and eventually the owner of the land started charging admission to see the crater, according to one report.
The report of a meteorite-like object hitting the earth was first reported to the State Fire & Rescue Service, which received a call on Sunday night. The service turned to the National Armed Forces to check whether there was excessive radiation at the crater, and a unit sent to the site late Sunday determined that there wasn’t. Police then cordoned off the area to prevent souvenir hunters from picking the crater dry.
By late Monday morning, the drama escalated after a couple geologists claimed that the crater was real and the result of a meteorite slamming into the site, which is located at the far end of a plowed field. The nearest home is about one kilometer away. The crater is some 15 meters wide and 5 meters deep.
“Someone spent an awful long time digging that,” said geologist Ģirts Stinkulis, who was at the site.
Police were uncertain whether they would open a criminal investigation into the incident, which forced the government to use significant government resources. Meteorites are rare occurrences, and only one in a thousand rocks that people claim to be meteorites actually to be such, according to scientists.
— Baltic Reports editor Nathan Greenhalgh contributed to this article.
