Goldfinger Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Hi Guys- When searching the records for meteorites of individual falls, the Meteoritical Bulletin often lists the longitude- latitude of where they were supposedly located. A lot of these single meteorites were found in the 1800's and it just makes me wonder how just how accurate these coordinates were. Anyone have any ideas on this? Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basaltgooroo Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Some times they just put the coordinate on the nearest section corner because they only know that they are withing a couple miles of the fall. [Erik] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bedrock bob Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Many named for the towns are simply coordinates of the town that they are named for. I know that there are several here that were found many miles away from the published coords. Also, those old coords are errant because it is the best that they could do...They may have TRIED to get accuracy but simply could not. In other cases coords are given that are simply wrong...Maybe a best guess or purposefully misleading. In most cases that I have known the published coords are simply not close enough to the strewn field to offer any chance of success. Stories, first hand accounts, and local information has always been the best info in my opinion. Bobby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regmaglitch Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 Hi Steve, Also, if there was no major geographic feature to name the meteorite after, the name of the nearest U.S. Post Office was used, even if it was far from where the stone was found. When you research a fall, ya gotta dig deep to get the dirty details. Good Luck, Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldfinger Posted August 4, 2009 Author Share Posted August 4, 2009 Hi Guys- Thanks for the information. This sounds more like treasure hunt more then a meteorite hunt with all the research needed to narrow down the location. Hopefully there's some old newspaper clippings or something like that to help narrow it down to someones farm,etc. Thanks again, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bedrock bob Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 You have the recipe dude! All the met records really reveal is that there WAS a fall. From there it is best to get first hand accounts or talk to the locals. A treasure hunt indeed. You pegged it right on! Even if you get an exact point within the strewn field from the records there is still a lot of work to be done. A strewn field is a lot more complicated that one pair of coords. Rock on my friend! I hope you find a meteorite as big as your Volvo! Bedrock Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.