[meteorite-list] Falls per year

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:38 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C8692C5FE4_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi Kelly,

Terrific update post on the meteorite annual fall rate subject,
specifically the breakdown of Japanese meteorites. My two
cents on Japan: this is a terrible location from which to
draw conclusions about global fall rates. The recovery rate
is going to be exceedingly low due to the poor terrain (for
meteorite hunting). The wet environment also means that if
a meteorite is not recovered quickly following a fall, it will
soon weather beyond easy recognition. This no doubt contributes
to the low ratio of finds to falls in Japan.

> Although I have not crunched the numbers for every location
> on the planet, I would bet that the state of Kansas (USA)
> has the highest recovery rate per capita per unit area per
> time for the entire planet. (I exclude Antarctica, Libya,
> Algeria, areas of recent concentrated searches by non-locals.)
> Kansas had 8 recoveries in the 1920's, 20 in the 1930's,
> 23 in the 1940's, and 18 in the 1950's, all finds, in a
> state with less than 2 million people! In the same 40 years,
> there were only two falls, a recovery ratio of finds to falls
> of 35 to 1! This remarkable rate of recovery may well be due
> primarily to the influence on that state of one person: H. H.
> Nininger.

Kansas is definitely up there with 134 listings in the Catalogue of
Meteorites, but New Mexico might be close. While the area is greater,
the number of finds is also (>200, although many of these are paired
in Roosevelt County), and I believe the population is lower. (By the
way -- I can't get the CD-ROM version of the Catalogue of Meteorites
to correctly do a "Set of Records" query with "New Mexico" entered
into the State box. Maybe the search fails for states with two words
in their name; for example, it fails to find anything for New York or
South Dakota, and presumably anything else I type in with two words).

Best,
Rob
Received on Mon 12 Mar 2001 07:06:15 PM PST