[meteorite-list] Article : 21st Century Meteorite Falls, Part Two

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2016 16:16:05 +0100
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kYr8rWydSzr9kwjUX++BF-Ccph3SVMp0qKQxsRHwpBHhQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Apparently.... I just found out....another hoax video...shame....looked
convincing to me.

On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Graham Ensor <graham.ensor at gmail.com>
wrote:

> But this looks promising Finbarr :-)...a couple of days ago...seems to be
> heading for land over the Bristol channel into Southern UK perhaps when you
> check out the map it was too high and far on to land in the Bristol
> channel.... http://travel.aol.co.uk/2016/10/20/flaming-meteor-crashes-
> into-sea-in-south-wales/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%
> 7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D-1309516890_uk
>
> Graham
>
> On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 10:02 PM, finbarr connolly via Meteorite-list <
> meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
>
>> I find the relatively static number of falls very surprising, considering
>> the proliferation of cameras compared to earlier times. Still waiting for
>> our first British Isles fall of the 21st century!
>>
>> Finbarr.
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 9:46 PM, Carl Agee via Meteorite-list <
>> meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Always an interesting topic!
>>>
>>> A couple of things come to mind:
>>>
>>> Morocco has 8 falls in the 21st century, which you suggest has to do
>>> with the meteorite-savvy population and desert terrain. California has
>>> a very similar area and population density -- also a west facing coast
>>> line, a fair amount of desert, and a mountain range. How many 21st
>>> century falls in CA?
>>>
>>> We are over-due for a lunar falls! There are now 265 classified lunars
>>> -- all of them finds. Compare that with 5 martian falls and 177
>>> classified finds, or for example mesosiderites with 6 falls and 261
>>> classified finds. Aubrites have 9 falls and 63 finds.
>>>
>>> Brachinites have no falls (40 finds), any others?
>>>
>>> Carl
>>>
>>>
>>> *************************************
>>> Carl B. Agee
>>> Director and Curator, Institute of Meteoritics
>>> Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences
>>> MSC03 2050
>>> University of New Mexico
>>> Albuquerque NM 87131-1126
>>>
>>> Tel: (505) 750-7172
>>> Fax: (505) 277-3577
>>> Email: agee at unm.edu
>>> http://meteorite.unm.edu/people/carl_agee/
>>> http://compres.us/about-us/compres-president
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 1:57 PM, Galactic Stone & Ironworks via
>>> Meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
>>> > "...In the first 10 years of the 21st Century, we have seen 58 new
>>> > meteorite falls (as of this writing). As we close out the first decade
>>> > of this new century, let us examine some of the facts and numbers
>>> > surrounding these recent falls. For the purposes of this article, we
>>> > will only examine those falls which have been officially recognized by
>>> > the Meteoritical Society. There have been a few documented falls that
>>> > have not been approved yet (Zunhua and Cartersville), so these falls
>>> > will not be included in this analysis..."
>>> >
>>> > I wrote the above introductory paragraph nearly 6 years ago (early
>>> > 2010) when I did my first analysis of recent meteorite fall
>>> > statistics. More than 5 years later, we have had 40 more
>>> > officially-recognized falls. In that same span of time, we have also
>>> > had Breja, Addison, Oslo, Mahbse Aarraid, and the recent White
>>> > Mountains fall that are well documented falls that have not been
>>> > approved or published in the Met Bull. A quick look at the overall
>>> > numbers shows a very slight increase in the number of approved falls
>>> > in the last 6 years compared to the previous 9.5 years. This is likely
>>> > due, in part, to increased awareness of meteorites and increased
>>> > recovery rates.
>>> >
>>> > Also, it seems that NonCom has been moving a bit faster to approve new
>>> > falls and publish them in the Met Bull. Taking all of these recent
>>> > falls into account, we have now had 98 official falls since the year
>>> > 2000. If one chooses to include the recent unofficial falls which will
>>> > likely be approved in the near future, then we have had over 100
>>> > meteorite falls in the 21st century.
>>> >
>>> > So, in the first 16 years (2000-2016) of this century, we have
>>> > averaged just over 6 approved falls per year. This represents an
>>> > uptick in the average number of approved falls compared to the
>>> > previous period of 2000-2010 where the average was 5. This is not so
>>> > clear cut though, because a couple of older falls were approved in the
>>> > years since, including Zunhua (as it was known in 2010), which was
>>> > approved in late 2015 as Xinglongquan. For tidy conversational
>>> > purposes, it's safe to say that we expect about 5 to 6 new approved
>>> > falls each year. A number of 5 per year being more conservative and
>>> > closer to 6 if you take into account that some falls are not recovered
>>> > or approved until a year or more after the date of their fall.
>>> >
>>> > Now let's take a look at the numbers and have some fun with them :
>>> > Which petrologic type do you think was the most common type recovered
>>> > during the first 16 years of this century?
>>> >
>>> > Well, it's safe to say that it is an ordinary chondrite. No surprises
>>> there.
>>> >
>>> > More specifically, we have a tie between L6 and H5 chondrites at 23
>>> each.
>>> >
>>> > Anyone want to guess what the third most common type is?
>>> > The third most common is the L5 chondrite with 10 approvals.
>>> > Well, surely the fourth most common is probably an H chondrite, right?
>>> Wrong.
>>> >
>>> > The fourth most common type is the eucrites with 7.
>>> >
>>> > Wait, that seems like too many Vestans! How can eucrite be in the top
>>> > 4 common types? The answer is simple, it's because we are playing
>>> > semantics with petrologic grades here.
>>> >
>>> > There have been 23 L6 chondrites, 23 H5 chondrites, 10 L5 chondrites,
>>> > and 7 eucrites. But, there are many subtypes of H and L chondrites
>>> > that are approved by NonCom, compared to the much smaller clan of
>>> > eucrites. In total, there were 42 L chondrites and 40 H chondrites of
>>> > various petrologic grades (L3, L4, L5, L6, etc) compared to just 7
>>> > eucrites. Throw in the 10 LL chondrites that were approved and the
>>> > numbers become more lopsided in favor of ordinary chondrites over
>>> > eucrites - 92 to 7.
>>> >
>>> > After the ordinary chondrites and eucrites, the most numerous of
>>> > meteorites recovered from 2000 to 2016 were carbonaceous chondrites
>>> > followed by a sprinkling of achondrites of different types.
>>> >
>>> > Worthy of note, thus far there has only been one iron fall (Kavarpura,
>>> > 2006) and no pallasite falls.
>>> >
>>> > There have been 39 hammer falls to date since Jan 01, 2000 - that is
>>> > roughly 40% of known falls.
>>> >
>>> > Number of official falls by country :
>>> >
>>> > USA : 17
>>> > India : 12
>>> > Morocco : 8
>>> > China : 5
>>> > Mauritania : 4
>>> > Australia : 3
>>> > Brazil : 3
>>> > Canada : 3
>>> > Germany : 3
>>> > Nigeria : 3
>>> > Turkey : 3
>>> > Argentina : 2
>>> > Burkina Faso : 2
>>> > Czech Republic : 2
>>> > Denmark : 2
>>> > France : 2
>>> > Iran : 2
>>> > Kenya : 2
>>> > Russia : 2
>>> > Spain : 2
>>> > Sudan : 2
>>> > Algeria : 1
>>> > Cambodia : 1
>>> > Colombia : 1
>>> > Croatia : 1
>>> > Ecuador : 1
>>> > Italy : 1
>>> > Japan : 1
>>> > Lesotho : 1
>>> > Libya : 1
>>> > Madagascar : 1
>>> > Mali : 1
>>> > Mexico : 1
>>> > Norway : 1
>>> > Pakistan : 1
>>> > Peru : 1
>>> > Poland : 1
>>> > Romania : 1
>>> > Slovakia : 1
>>> > Slovenia : 1
>>> > South Korea : 1
>>> > Tunisia : 1
>>> > Uganda : 1
>>> > Uzbekistan : 1
>>> > Western Sahara : 1
>>> > Yemen : 1
>>> > Zimbabwe : 1
>>> >
>>> > A few things we can surmise from these country numbers. Obviously the
>>> > USA had the most falls. This is largely due to the number of cameras
>>> > and observers watching the skies, combined with a robust system of
>>> > quickly tracking down falls to recover them. India is somewhat
>>> > surprising with the second-most number of falls, and this is due in
>>> > part to how densely-populated that nation is. Morocco, despite it's
>>> > small geographic size, was in third place. Morocco's performance can
>>> > be attributed to the meteorite-savvy nature of the local population.
>>> >
>>> > China is in fourth place, which is very surprising when considering
>>> > how big China is in geography and population. Another surprise is
>>> > Russia, which had only two known falls. I think China and Russia's
>>> > lack of recoveries is due in part to the difficult nature of the
>>> > terrain in those countries (compared to a nation like Morocco that has
>>> > a lot of desert), and the undeveloped nature of their meteorite
>>> > recovery programs.
>>> >
>>> > Although the USA has no government-sponsored program to recover
>>> > meteorites in America, there is a thriving culture of participation by
>>> > private hunters, which explains the relatively high recovery rate.
>>> > This stands in stark contrast to Australia which has a quasi-official
>>> > program to recover meteorites, but only has three recoveries to show
>>> > for it. Another big country with a small number of recovered falls is
>>> > Canada, and once again, I think difficult terrain is responsible for
>>> > some of that, and the rest can probably be explained by how
>>> > sparsely-populated some areas are.
>>> >
>>> > Number of official falls by petrologic type :
>>> >
>>> > C2-ung : 1
>>> > CM : 1
>>> > CM2 : 1
>>> > CO3.6 : 1
>>> > CV3 : 1
>>> > EL6 : 1
>>> > LL3.2 : 1
>>> > LL5 : 3
>>> > LL6 : 6
>>> > L3 : 1
>>> > L4 : 4
>>> > L5 : 11
>>> > L5-6 : 1
>>> > L5/6 : 2
>>> > L6 : 23
>>> > H/L3 : 1
>>> > H/L4 : 1
>>> > H3-5 : 2
>>> > H3.8 : 1
>>> > H4 : 3
>>> > H4-5 : 2
>>> > H4/5 : 2
>>> > H5 : 23
>>> > H5/6 : 2
>>> > H6 : 4
>>> > Eucrite : 7
>>> > Howardite : 1
>>> > Martian : 1
>>> > Ureilite : 1
>>> > Iron IIE-an : 1
>>> >
>>> > That?s it for this installment. I?ll see you again in several years.
>>> > In the meantime, good luck and happy hunting! :)
>>> >
>>> > 21st Century Meteorite Falls (Part One) :
>>> > http://www.galactic-stone.com/pages/20falls
>>> >
>>> > Recent Meteorite Falls (updated tally page) :
>>> > http://www.galactic-stone.com/pages/falls
>>> >
>>> > Witnessed Falls available for purchase :
>>> > http://www.galactic-stone.com/pages/fallcatalog
>>> >
>>> > This article is ? Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites, 2016.
>>> > ______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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Received on Fri 21 Oct 2016 11:16:05 AM PDT