An Incident In 1888 Sulaymaniyah May Be The Only Confirmed Death By Meteorite

Though the Earth doesn't make a fuss about it, it is bombarded with around 44,000 kilograms (48.5 tons) of meteoritic material every day. Most of it burns up harmlessly in our atmosphere, but some material does make it to the ground. 

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Fortunately, the Earth is pretty big, and you are unlikely to see one hit the ground anywhere near you. In fact, the first time a meteor was videoed actually hitting the Earth was in January 2025.

But your odds of being hit by an meteorite are always larger than zero. In a recent study, researchers attempted to calculate your odds of succumbing to various fatal events.

"Although everyone's individual situation and risk are different, on average, it's slightly more likely that a >140-meter asteroid or comet hits the Earth than an individual is struck by lightning," lead author Professor Carrie Nugent from Olin College told IFLScience. "An impact is less likely than experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning. Although an asteroid impact is pretty unlikely to occur in any given year, the probability is not zero, and might be higher than some people expect. But, just like carbon monoxide poisoning is preventable, so is an asteroid impact – if we have enough time to prepare."

That study found you are more likely to be hit by a meteorite than you are to get attacked by an elephant or a coyote, or be involved in a skydiving accident.

While the odds of you specifically being hit are still pretty low, history is long and the Earth's population is large. There have been various accounts throughout recent history of people being hit or killed by meteor strike, but many of them have been dubious, or lack evidence. In recent times, the only person confirmed to be hit by a meteor strike is Ann Hodges, who was hit on her upper hip after a grapefruit-sized meteorite slammed through her ceiling and bounced off her wooden radio before striking her. 

But in 2020, one team identified what might be the only confirmed death by meteorite, dating back to 1888. Looking at documents written in an old Ottoman-Turkish language and translating them, researchers found three letters describing an incident in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Documents from the General Directorate of State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey appear to record a sustained meteor fall. 

According to those documents, on August 22 a "strong bright light was accompanied by smoke and travelled toward a village called 'Dilaver' in the eastern side of Suleymaniyah", while the nearby village of Horilmar also witnessed the event.

"Meteorites fell for a period of about ten minutes, like rain," according to that account, which claims "as a consequence of this event, one man was killed and the other was seriously injured and left paralyzed." According to the translation, crops were also damaged as the meteors fell.

In other claimed meteor deaths, such as a man who died in 2016 in India, no associated meteorite was found. In fact, that 2016 death was eventually put down to a ground-based explosion. But in 1888, documents show that the rocks fell on a hill, and though the translation was not too clear it suggested to the researchers that samples were sent to the government of the time. Though these have not been found yet, the team believes the case to be genuine.

"This event is the first report ever that states a meteor impact killed a man in history ever with the support of three written manuscripts that report an event in a such detail up to our knowledge," the team writes in their conclusion. "Due to the fact that these documents are from official government sources and written by the local authorities, even grand vizier himself as well, we do not have any suspicion on their reality."

This death, though maybe the first found, may not be the last. They suggest that the event may have been lost for so long due to it being written in a language other than English, or a lack of interest in historical records.

"These findings suggest other historical records may still exist that describe other events that caused death and injuries by meteorites," the team adds.