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meteorite shower
Only a few meteorites make their passage through the atmosphere in one piece. Most of them are fragmented on their way due to the high pressure to which they are subjected. Sometimes they may burst into only a few fragments, at other times, into thousands of individual pieces creating a meteorite shower. Only a few pieces from such a shower actually arrive on Earth since the smaller fragments usually burn up during their passage. However, sometimes, when the initial pieces are big enough, it literally "rains stones," and thousands of meteorites can be collected from huge strewn fields.
| Historic meteorite showers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| meteorite | country | fell | total weight (kg) | individuals |
| Pultusk | Poland | 1868 | 200 | 180,000 |
| Holbrook | USA | 1912 | 220 | 16,000 |
| Sikhote-Alin | Russia | 1947 | 70,000 | 15,000 |
| Allende | Mexico | 1969 | 2,000 | 5,000 |
| L'Aigle | France | 1803 | 37 | 3,000 |
| Mocs | Romania | 1882 | 300 | 3,000 |
| Prominent prehistoric strewn fields | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| meteorite | country | found | total mass (kg) | individuals |
| Campo del Cielo | Argentina | 1576 | 70,000 | thousands |
| Gibeon | Namibia | 1836 | 26,000 | thousands |
| Toluca | Mexico | 1776 | 2,500 | thousands |
| Brenham | USA | 1882 | 2,400 | thousands |
| Imilac | Chile | 1822 | 1,000 | > 1,000 |
| Plainview | USA | 1917 | 700 | > 1,000 |
Related category
• METEORS AND METEORITESAlso on this site:
Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living
Encyclopedia of History