[meteorite-list] Related Meteorite Falls 11 years apart? Both Hammers! Both L6 Olivine-hypersthene

From: Walter Branch <waltbranch_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 21:47:30 -0500
Message-ID: <38D8ECD2D6A248F9ABBE9DC3BE9E74D2_at_acer330bb84976>

>I'm simply saying it seems like an awfully big >coincidence to me that they
>hit the same location

Not at all.

Given the fact that every spot on earth has an equal probability of being
impacted by a meteorite, the fact that two meteorites fell within a mile or
so of each other is just random variation. It only seems like it is more
than a coincidence because they were witnessed falls that hit houses and
both were L6 - a very common classification..

There are documented strewnfields within strewnfields. Once they enter the
Earth's atmosphere, these things have to fall somewhere. So many variables
determine the eventual impact site, that over a long period of time (e.g.,
billions of years) these variables become random and they fall where they
do.

Which means my backyard is equally likely to receive a meteorite as the same
dimension of land in Antarctica, or the Atlantic ocean for that matter, only
I haven't lived in my house long enough to see it happen: But eventually,
my backyard will receive a meteorite: again and again and again...

And in eons past, it probably already has.

-Walter Branch
Received on Mon 08 Mar 2010 09:47:30 PM PST