[meteorite-list] 15? New Falls in the year 2018 - an apparent bombardment

From: AL Mitorling <mittmet51_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:55:40 -0400
Message-ID: <CALeCmTkhtVQJLEnYDeWM-Fy2y_wn-PZpL_bOO+gV4=BXnDkhpQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Greetings,

There have been a number of scientific studies on the rates of falls.
One is a Canadian study that estimates some 21,000 meteorites one
hundred grams or larger fall on the Earth each year. Of those falls,
over 3/4 of them land in oceans. This leaves about 5,250 that fall on
land. Many of those land in remote areas or in areas where the
population of people is low per square mile. With fewer people in an
area, increases the probability of detection much less likely. Urban
areas or populated areas should detect more falls.

In 1933 17 meteorites were seen to fall and recovered, which is .3% of
estimated falls. (Earth's population has increased substantially since
then) I'm not sure if there has been more since the 17 meteorite
falls/recovery since that year. Some times what is recovered and what
falls are two different things. Fall ratios on the cosmic scale can be
difficult to track since we have only been tracking for about a
hundred and twenty years compared to the long term rates on the cosmic
scale.

While 11 or 15 falls may have been recorded for 2018, these are the
falls that were seen to fall in that year and recovered, while an
additional three or four thousand fell (on land) and were not
recovered and no doubt some were never seen to fall. Only long term
studies of falls, over periods of thousands of years would actually
tell us that we are in a year with more concentrations of meteoroid
streams, that have increased the fall ratio or more of a bombardment.
So I would say that last year we were observant to falls than previous
years. Best!

--AL Mitterling
Mitterling Meteorites
Received on Sat 27 Apr 2019 01:55:40 PM PDT