[meteorite-list] Plotting Months and Days - Part 1

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:50:29 2004
Message-ID: <3CC868E0.FE7BCD43_at_lehrer1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>

AL recently had a brilliant idea:

> I wonder if anyone has tried to plot months and days related to
> meteorite classes to see if any correlation of types on certain
> fall days exists? If streams could be predicted then we could have
> watchers for this material coming down, plotting the falls with
> various observers or camera networks.

A tremendous amount of database work - and I have only
been able to do the query for H chondrites so far - but the
first results look very, very promising!!!

In a first run, I've looked for multiple falls for all of the 12 months
and the respective days of the months for all of the H3, H4, H5, H6
chondrite falls. I did not include the H3-4, H3-5, H3-6, H4-5, and
the H5-6 types because, statistically, they are irrelevant.

Here are my first results:

a) Total H4 chondrites Oct 31: 02

b) Total H5 chondrites Feb 26: 02
c) Total H5 chondrites Apr 10: 02
d) Total H5 chondrites May 02: 02
e) Total H5 chondrites May 24: 02
f) Total H5 chondrites May 27: 02 [time interval between (e)/(f)]
g) Total H5 chondrites Jun 16: 02 [only three days]
h) Total H5 chondrites Jul 24: 02

> i) Total H5 chondrites Aug 11: 02*
> j) Total H5 chondrites Aug 12: 02*

> k) Total H5 chondrites Sep 04: 02**
> l) Total H5 chondrites Sep 05: 03**

m) Total H5 chondrites Oct 11: 02
n) Total H5 chondrites Nov 12: 02
o) Total H5 chondrites Nov 17: 02
p) Total H5 chondrites Nov 26: 02
q) Total H5 chondrites Dec 30: 02

> r) Total H6 chondrites Jan 19: 03***
s) Total H6 chondrites Jun 12: 02
t) Total H6 chondrites Sep 23: 02
u) Total H6 chondrites Sep 29: 02
v) Total H6 chondrites Oct 20: 02
w) Total H6 chondrites Nov 05: 02

* There is a noticeable "clustering" around Aug 11, 12
   with four H5 chondrites on two successive days !

** An even "denser" clustering for Sep 04, 05
    with a total of five H5 chondrites !!

*** Three H6 chondrites on Jan 19! But, as AL already mentioned
     the next step would be that one has to find out whether there
     is a leap year not only for these three falls but for all of them!

We should always keep in mind that this is a purely statistical survey
and thus should not infer too quickly that these clusterings represent a
true orbital distribution of meteorite groups - Corrections would have
to be made for the Earth's diurnal and annual rotation, time zones, the
meteoroids' orbital parameters and orbital dimensions, just to mention
a few that come to mind! But still I think that we have just begun to
scratch the tip of the iceberg !

More will follow soon - time permitting ... My next database query will
more closely examine the H chondrites with subsequent fall days, i.e.:
Apr 17 and Apr 18, etc.


Best wishes,

Bernd
Received on Thu 25 Apr 2002 04:36:48 PM PDT