Iowa Meteorites

Authors

Larry A. Kelsey, University of Northern IowaFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Every day, the earth is bombarded by an estimated 100 tons of interplanetary debris. Most of this is produced by micrometeorites that vaporize high in the atmosphere and slowly settle to earth as a fine dust. Only a rare once-a-day small meteorite survives its passage through the atmosphere to impact the earth. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these go undetected or undiscovered. As a result, it is an important event when a sizable meteorite fall occurs which is well observed and documented. Interestingly, Iowa appears to have been blessed with an inordinate number of these falls within recorded history. In fact, during one period of 43 years, four major meteorite falls were noted in the state. The following is a discussion of meteorites in general, and then an examination of these Iowa falls, as well as one subsequent find which occurred within the state.

Publication Date

Winter 1985-86

Journal Title

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Volume

22

Issue

3

First Page

9

Last Page

15

Copyright

© Copyright 1985 by the Iowa Academy of Science

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Kelsey, Larry A. (1985) "Iowa Meteorites," Iowa Science Teachers Journal: Vol. 22: No. 3, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj/vol22/iss3/4