Why can a large meteor produce sounds similar to thunder or a sonic boom?

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Meteor and meteoroid The Cabin Creek meteorite, an iron (nickel-iron alloy) meteorite that was observed to fall in northwestern Arkansas on March 27, 1886. Its characteristic pattern of “thumbprint” dimples, or regmaglypts, is the result of melting and consequent ablation of its surface as it traveled through the atmosphere. The meteorite is likely a fragment of one of the M class asteroids, which show significant nickel-iron in their surface material.

When a large meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere at high velocity, it creates a shock wave in the air ahead of it. This shock wave is a result of the object pushing aside the atmospheric gases it encounters at extreme speeds.1

As the meteoroid penetrates to lower altitudes—typically around 40 km—this shock wave can travel all the way to the ground. The interaction between the solid object, its vapor, and the surrounding air generates intense acoustic disturbances that observers on the ground perceive as sounds similar to thunder or a sonic boom. In some cases, these sounds are powerful enough to shake the ground and be detected by seismometers.1