Places you can Find Meteorites

The Best Place to find meteorites is right here. Ok, so maybe you want to go find yor own instead of buying it. Maybe you even want to find some so you can sell them and put some cash in your pocket. Chances are if you have a little patience and sense of adventure, you will find one (or more).

Where do you look? Beleive it or not almost anywhere! Some places are easier than others. Lots fall in the ocean, but I doubt very many have been found there for obvious reasons. I happen to live in the southeast U.S. and it’s not easy to find them here. There is too much weathering and they are usually buried, unrecognizable or covered in brush. I wish I lived in the western United States. An arid climate is ideal for hunting. Minimal plant cover and less weathering and erosion makes hunting metorites much easier.  Rusting of Iron meteorites and weathering of stoney meteorites makes them harder to identify. So if you really want to up your chances, look in the southwest U.S. or any desert like area. Even the Artic has been a very good place. Very many have been found there. A little too cold for me though, and far. Africa is a hot spot to, but I am sticking to the U.S.

There are a large number of estimated falls each year. If you take into account millions of years of meteorites falling to the ground, then you can see how many are yet to be found. A study done in 1996 (looking at the number of meteorites found in deserts over time) calculated that for objects in the 10 gram to 1 kilogram size range, 2900-7300 kilograms per year hit Earth. They also estimate between 36 and 166 meteorites larger than 10 grams fall to Earth per million square kilometers per year. Over the whole surface area of Earth, that translates to 18,000 to 84,000 meteorites bigger than 10 grams per year.

There are Strewn Maps available from a few places that may help in your hunt.

Metal detectors are a useful tool in finding meteorites. Many meteorites contain iron and some of the easiest to find are the Nickel-Iron type because they look and feel different than surround “Earth” rock. Since many are buried in to ground, metal detectors can aid in the search. Stoney meteorites although more abundant are a little harder to find since they look more like normal rocks. So don’t forget the metal detector and brush up on identifying them and have fun. It’s great for the whole family.

.