[meteorite-list] Meteorite entry slopes

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:13 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4E2C8_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi Bernd,

"Matson, Robert" wrote:

> I would be curious to know what the estimated angles were for
> Peekskill, Tagish Lake and the recent Bavarian fall. I suspect
> they are all 25 degrees or less.

Bernd replied:

"Pribram's slope was given as 43=B0 and the first observations of
the Bavarian fireball (Neuschwanstein) gave a slope of 49.5=B0"

Interesting that Neuschwanstein's (and Pribram's) entry slopes
were so high. So I was right on Tagish Lake, wrong on Neuschwanstein.
Come on Peekskill! Help get my guess accuracy back to 2 out of 3!
;-)

Cheers,
Rob

P.S. I wonder how many falls have good estimates on their entry
slopes. It would be interesting to see how mass and composition
vary with angle. I would expect the higher angles to be dominated
by irons or high-mass chondrites. Similarly, I would think the
more fragile meteorites (e.g. carbonaceous chondrites, friable
ordinary chondrites) would be more likely to survive only at
shallow entry slopes. Tagish Lake supports this idea; how about
Allende, or Murchison (whose strewn field covers some 33 km^2)?
And for friable meteorites, how about Saratov or Bjurb=F6le? (Of
course, the Bjurb=F6le and Saratov TKW's are both fairly large --
some 330 kilos each -- so they might have had a better chance of
surviving steep entry angles).
Received on Tue 13 Aug 2002 03:55:58 PM PDT