[quuxplusone]

The Wikipedia article on "meteor air burst" has an explanation that basically matches yours, although they do use the word "explosion" to describe it. Which makes sense to me: whatever one chooses to call it, it's a nearly instantaneous spontaneous disassembly that is very bright, very hot, and very loud.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_air_burst

[jojobas]

The speed scale for disassembly is nowhere near the forward speed; you never get anywhere close to 45 degree debris divergence angle. It's also, again, not the disassembly that causes it to be bright, hot and loud. Wikipedians can also be wrong.

[adrian_b]

Some meteors do explode.

The meteors made only of iron alloy and/or silicate rocks do not explode, but they may fragment into many smaller bodies.

The meteors that contain great amounts of volatile substances (water, carbon compounds and sulfur compounds) may explode if the interior becomes hot enough to convert the volatiles into gases. When such a meteor rich in volatiles fragments, some of the fragments may explode, while others may reach the surface of the Earth intact.

[jojobas]

This fragmentation is not violent and it's not what produces the shockwave, the term "break up" is more appropriate.

[gruntled-worker]

We are not disassembling, we are assembling in another time direction.