Hi All, I spent some more time exploring the statistics of equilibrated ordinary chondrite recoveries from Antarctica, and discovered an oddity in the mass histogram for L-chondrites:
http://members.cox.net/mojave_meteorites/Antarctic_Histogram.jpg Notice the dip in L-chondrite masses between 10 and 100 grams. By comparison, the histograms for H- and LL-chondrites look more like what one would expect: going from right to left, a steadily increasing number of finds as the masses decrease to about 10 grams, with a drop off below this mass due to the difficulty in spotting small meteorites. In addition, the median mass is noticeably higher for L- chondrites than either H- or LL-chondrites: H median mass = 17.78 g L median mass = 82.90 g ** LL median mass = 22.81 g What does this imply about L-chondrites? Are they sturdier than H's or LL's? If so, does the greater robustness come into play during atmospheric entry, or while weathering on the ground, or a combination of the two? Or perhaps it's due to orbital dynamics -- maybe the post-impact orbit(s) of the L parent body fragments have a lower cosmic velocity than those of H's or LL's, exposing them to less stress during passage through earth's atmosphere? Or could it be a visibility issue? Are L's for some reason harder to spot than H's or LL's, making smaller finds less likely? The double hump of the L histogram suggests this isn't very likely. Perhaps some of you have some other possibilities in mind. Cheers, Rob ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
