[meteorite-list] Northwest Africa Falls - Question

From: Dr. Svend Buhl <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:07:27 +0100
Message-ID: <00a101c978f8$5e161da0$6401a8c0_at_HOME>

Interesting debate. Reminds me on the good old days of the Acedemie
Francaise, the days before Biot and Chladni, where scientists doubted the
accounts of local eyewitnesses on rocks falling from the skies for
sociological reasons.

As far as I am concerned, I still trust the people who measured e.g. the
cosmogenic radionuclides of the meteorites produced by these recent falls. I
absolutely doubt that the Swiss or French labs who worked on these stones
made up their results just to make them fit the newspaper reports and
eyewitness accounts.

Svend Buhl


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Grossman" <jgrossman at usgs.gov>
To: "Meteorite-list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 11:27 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Northwest Africa Falls - Question


> Martin and list,
>
> Actually, there is something suspicious. Northwest Africa (the countries
> you listed plus Western Sahara and Tunisia) has seen between 0 and 3 falls
> per decade from the 1900s through the 1980s. The 1990s saw 6, and the
> 2000s have now got 8. There is no parallel increase in the rest of
> Africa, which in fact has been steadily declining in fall rates since the
> 1940s. Europe has also been declining since the 1930s (in fall rates), as
> has North America. I think northwest Africa is the only place in the
> world that is seeing any kind of increase in rate, and it has been
> dramatic, tripling in the last decade.
>
> The are various sociological reasons why this increase might have
> happened, which we can argue about. But there certainly IS something to
> raise ones eyebrows.
>
> Jeff
>
> Martin Altmann wrote:
>> Hi Ryan,
>> it's because of the iron mountain in Atlas, which still has to be found
>> and
>> which attracts with his magnetic field all iron-bearing lumps from space.
>>
>> No. Take a World map, hold little Europe (forget a little bit about
>> Scandinavia),
>> hold it against that NWA region, Algeria, Mali, Niger, Morocco,
>> Mauretania....
>>
>> And let's count the falls:
>>
>> Let's start with Zag 1998.
>>
>> NWA-Regions:
>>
>> Zag 1998
>> El Idrissa 1998
>> Djoumine 1999
>> Beni M'hira 2001
>> Bensour 2002
>> Oum Dreyga 2003
>> Maigatari-Danduma 2004
>> Benguerir 2004
>> Bassikounou 2006
>> Chergach 2007
>> And now the new possible fall.
>>
>> Europe:
>>
>> Ourique 1998
>> Leighlinbridge 1999
>> Moravka 2000
>> San Michele 2002
>> Neuschwanstein 2002
>> Alby sur Cheran 2002
>> Villalbeto 2004
>> Moss 2006
>> Puerto Lapice 2007
>> Romanian Fall 2008
>>
>> 11 : 11.
>>
>> So nothing suspicious.
>>
>> USA had 7
>> India 10
>>
>> Best!
>> Martin
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Ok Folks,
>>
>> I am curious to know why there are so many witnessed (recovered)
>> meteorite
>> falls in Northwest Africa as opposed to anywhere else in the world. Is
>> there
>> a good logical and/or scientifc explanation for this?.. or just a
>> coincidence? I understand that some "falls" simply turn out to be a case
>> of
>> Nomadic lies in an attempt to liquidate (recycle) old material, but what
>> about the others? Perhpas it has something to do with it's geographical
>> location in relation to..?
>> And yes, I do understand these people spend countless hours outdoors, in
>> the
>> desert, ect. but..
>>
>> What are your thoughts?
>>
>> Ryan
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman phone: (703) 648-6184
> US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
> 954 National Center
> Reston, VA 20192, USA
>
>
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Received on Sat 17 Jan 2009 06:07:27 PM PST