My question is, how many meteories can we expect if we count in all
the small ones down to 1 gram in the total. If the statistics hold for
meteorites as in many other things, the amount will significantly
increase the smaller the stones are.
Maybe not as much as you would expect, given that meteorites have a
terrestrial lifetime due to weathering, and small stones weather much
faster. So you need to consider the balance between what falls (which
likely follows some sort of power law with respect to size), and how
fast it rots away (also following a power law).
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lasse Lindh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:22 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] How many are there
Hi all
There is one question that I have tried to find answer to and that is:
How many meteorites are there waiting to be found? Iv'e asked this
question in other forums but never got a straight answer. Probably
because no one knows.. ;o) Thats understandable. But purely
theoretical. How many meteorites fell to earth each year? One number
that is mentioned is that it's estimated that some 5-6000 meteorites
over 100 gram or 80.000 meteorites over 10 gram do fell each year over
the whole Earth. That's a significant number, but spread out over the
whole planet, it's very little per square mile.
Wilson made a search on 4 square miles sometime in the 50:ies. He
found 159 meteorites. I do not know how he performed this search, but
I reckon he used metal detectors and magnets that were very much
inferior with todays. He might not even have bothered to search below
the surface for small ones and only took the ones he saw and those
that were detected by his MD, if he was usinf one.
If we were to do the same search today in the same area, with the best
tools that we got, I wonder how many additional meteories that we
would find?
My question is, how many meteories can we expect if we count in all
the small ones down to 1 gram in the total. If the statistics hold for
meteorites as in many other things, the amount will significantly
increase the smaller the stones are.
This is an interesting question especially for us that does not live
in a dry desert area or have the means or money to travel there a few
times each year. If that number is high enough, it might be worth
while to search with magnets in an area were meteories never get to be
older than maybe 500 years...
regards
Lasse
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