[meteorite-list] Total Mass of Iron Meteorites

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:11 2004
Message-ID: <3A92DC0A.89787162_at_lehrer1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>

> Sum stones: ca. 51444 kg (51 tons)
> Sum irons : ca. 300424815 kg (300424 tons)
> Sum St-I : ca. 23515 kg (23 tons)

Eric kindly wrote:

> Bernd, The iron numbers seem exceptionally high.
> That is like 5000 Hobas. What are the top 5 or
> 10 masses for irons?

Hello All!

This exceptionally high number is due to the enormous mass (estimate) I
have for the Canyon Diablo impactor. Neglecting this enormous value
(see Roddy and Shoemaker, 1995) would reduce the total to about 420
tons.

BUCHWALD V.F. (1975) Handbook of Iron Meteorites, Vol. 2, pp. 381-382:

Estimates of the total mass of the meteorite calculated from the size of
the crater, will, of course, be highly dependent upon the velocity with
which it is assumed to have hit the Earth. Of this we know very little ,
so it is not surprising that figures vary:

     - 400,000 tons (Magie, 1910)
     - 5,000-3,000,000 tons (Moulton, 1931)
     - 15,000 tons (Wylie, 1943)
     - 5,000,000 tons (Öpik, 1936 / Rostoker, 1953)
     - 2,600,000 tons (Öpik, 1958a)
     - 63,000 tons (Shoemaker, 1963)
     - 300,000-400,000 tons / diameter 45-50 m (Roddy + Shoemaker, 1995)


> What are the top 5 or 10 masses for irons?

Canyon Diablo: 300000000000 gr
Cape York: 62400000 gr
Hoba: 60000000
Armanty: 28000000 gr
Sikhote-Alin: 23000000 gr
Mundrabilla: 22700000 gr
Bacubirito: 22000000 gr
Chupaderos: 20881000 gr
Gibeon: 19108000 gr
Mbosi: 16000000 gr


Best wishes,

Bernd
Received on Tue 20 Feb 2001 04:05:14 PM PST