2002 Eastern Mediterranean event

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title: "2002 Eastern Mediterranean event" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["explosions-in-2002", "2002-natural-disasters", "modern-earth-impact-events", "eastern-mediterranean", "history-of-the-mediterranean", "june-2002-in-africa", "21st-century-astronomical-events"] description: "Atmospheric explosion above the Mediterranean Sea, caused by small asteroid" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Eastern_Mediterranean_event" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Atmospheric explosion above the Mediterranean Sea, caused by small asteroid ::

|coordinates = |caption = 2002 Eastern Mediterranean event |relief = yes |float = right

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Levantine_Sea.jpg" caption="The Mediterranean sea" alt="The Mediterranean sea"] ::

The 2002 Eastern Mediterranean Event was a high-energy upper atmosphere explosion over the Mediterranean Sea, around 34°N 21°E (between Libya and Crete) on June 6, 2002. This explosion, similar in power to a small atomic bomb, has been related to a small asteroid undetected while approaching Earth. The object disintegrated as a meteor air burst over the sea, and no meteorite fragments were recovered.

The event occurred during the 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff, and there were concerns by General Simon Worden of the U.S. Air Force that if the upper atmosphere explosion had occurred closer to Pakistan or India, it could have sparked a nuclear war between the two countries.

References

References

1. (2002-07-15). "Speech by Gen. Simon Worden: 'Military Perspectives on the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Threat'". [[United States Space Command]].
2. (2002-09-17). "Near-Earth Objects Pose Threat, General Says". Space Daily.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::