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Where Do Meteorites Usually Land?


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do meteorites just land anywhere on the planet? or do they typically land in specific areas?

For instance would Atlanta, Georgia USA have meteorites on the ground somewhere?

 

 

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On 1/30/2020 at 4:19 PM, maxxkatt said:

do meteorites just land anywhere on the planet? or do they typically land in specific areas?

For instance would Atlanta, Georgia USA have meteorites on the ground somewhere?

The simple answer is that they aren't selective.  However, given that meteorites tend to orbit in the plane of the solar system (plenty of exceptions) and the earth's equator is 'close' to coplanar with that (here I'm calling 23.5 degrees "close"), I suspect there is a higher probability for a low latitude strike.

The problem is that meteorites are rare, even though meteors (impinging meteoroids) are common.  A vast majority of the latter burn up in the atmosphere.  As such the best places to find meteorites are in places that are *known* to have meteoroids that already survived (past tense) to reach the ground.  AFAIK Atlanta isn't one of those.

As an (related) aside, my parents used to own land which was above an ancient astrobleme (surviving crater).  Some university geologists came by to study that.  In his spare time, one of the scientists would search through farm rock piles -- i.e. large rocks that had been moved to the edge of a field so as not to damage the farming equipment -- hoping to find a meteorite.  (To be clear, he wasn't looking for remnants of the meteoroid that caused the astrobleme.  That one struck between 100 million and 300 million years ago, and any remaining pieces wouldn't be on the surface right above it.)  That tells you that anywhere is a possible location, but of course it's a needle-in-a-haystack proposition.  Then again, we detectorists are accustomed to that occurrence!

 

 

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I’m pretty sure they hit just about anywhere. Finding them with a detector is about the only way to do it in most places, but there are some places where finding them by eye is easier. Anyplace where the present surface is free of dark colored rock, plant growth and other things which camouflage meteorites is good, especially if the surface is “deflationary” that is, not covered by later deposits from stream flow or other accretion of new material.

Good prospects are deserts with light colored surfaces and dry lakes. The serious scientists are making a lot of finds in Antarctica - so I guess that’s good also.

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I agree with Fred, they could be anywhere.
Speaking from experience, I discovered a "cold find" while detecting for gold nuggets.
A pleasant surprise it was.
Existing strewnfields are your best bet to lay your hands on one.
However it does no harm to "search" where ever you have the opportunity to do so.
Having a small "sample" will increase your chances of identifying one in the field.
Perseverance is the key. 

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As they can burn up or skip off the atmosphere when striking Earth at an angle, I think those that hit at a smaller angle may have the best chance of surviving to the ground surface.  But as for location?  I also think they can be anywhere on the planet as people search for them successfully in Antartica and in the US Southwest as well.  The main factor you are going to be dealing with is weathering. If you are in a very wet area, most of the older meteorites probably have already rusted or decomposed.

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On 1/30/2020 at 1:31 PM, GB_Amateur said:

The simple answer is that they aren't selective.  However, given that meteorites tend to orbit in the plane of the solar system (plenty of exceptions) and the earth's equator is 'close' to coplanar with that (here I'm calling 23.5 degrees "close"), I suspect there is a higher probability for a low latitude strike.

The problem is that meteorites are rare, even though meteors (impinging meteoroids) are common.  A vast majority of the latter burn up in the atmosphere.  As such the best places to find meteorites are in places that are *known* to have meteoroids that already survived (past tense) to reach the ground.  AFAIK Atlanta isn't one of those.

As an (related) aside, my parents used to own land which was above an ancient astrobleme (surviving crater).  Some university geologists came by to study that.  In his spare time, one of the scientists would search through farm rock piles -- i.e. large rocks that had been moved to the edge of a field so as not to damage the farming equipment -- hoping to find a meteorite.  (To be clear, he wasn't looking for remnants of the meteoroid that caused the astrobleme.  That one struck between 100 million and 300 million years ago, and any remaining pieces wouldn't be on the surface right above it.)  That tells you that anywhere is a possible location, but of course it's a needle-in-a-haystack proposition.  Then again, we detectorists are accustomed to that occurrence!

 

 

Interesting to look through farm rock piles for meteorites, I haven’t thought of that! As an archaeologist, my wife does that to look for Native American mortars and other artifacts that farmers may have inadvertently picked up. Now we will have to go back and start relooking at some farm rock piles we searched through before again as well!

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