<p>A meteor flared over the US states of Michigan and Illinois on Tuesday, January 16, exploding with enough force to register as the equivalent of a 2.0 magnitude earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed.</a></p><p>Social media users rushed to share their accounts of seeing and hearing the fireball which appeared at around 8.10 pm. Bob Trembly with the Warren Astronomical Society told Fox 2</a> it was a classic “bolide,” a meteor that explodes in the atmosphere.</p><p>“That is a fireball that has a bright flash and it explodes,” he said. “What you are seeing there is when a meteor hits the atmosphere it causes the air to ionize and turns it into plasma and that is the bright light you see from a meteor. Well if they are large enough they get a little deeper into the atmosphere and they can explode like you saw.”</p><p>This security camera footage shows the meteor streaking through the sky over Troy, Michigan. Credit: YouTube/Matt Ervin/Woodside Bible Church via Storyful</p><br />
