Abstract
Estimates of the meteorite influx to Earth based on historical observations or collections of meteorites from densely populated areas have produced discordant results. Observations of meteoric fireballs between 1974 and 1985 by the Canadian camera network are used to derive the present flux, using the number of events in a measured interval of observations and employing the theory of meteor physics to calibrate the mass scale. It is concluded that 4500 events per year drop at least 1 kg of meteorites on Earth where the uncertainty in the mass estimates is about a factor of two. The observed distribution of the orbital parameters of meteoritic events is used to derive the expected variation in the flux as a function of time of day, season and geographic latitude. There is evidence for the existence of groups of related meteorite orbits although the reality of the groups and their orbital evolution deserve further study.
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Halliday, I. (2001). The Present-day Flux of Meteorites to the Earth. In: Peucker-Ehrenbrink, B., Schmitz, B. (eds) Accretion of Extraterrestrial Matter Throughout Earth’s History. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8694-8_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8694-8_16
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