Atacama Desert tagged posts

Oldest Meteorite Collection on Earth found in one of the Driest Places

The L6 ordinary chondrite El Médano 128, a 556 g meteorite recovered in the Atacama Desert. Photo courtesy CCJ-CNRS, P. Groscaux. Click on the image for a larger version.

Researchers have uncovered a wealth of well-preserved meteorites that allowed them to reconstruct the rate of falling meteorites over the past two million years. Earth is bombarded every year by rocky debris, but the rate of incoming meteorites can change over time. Finding enough meteorites scattered on the planet’s surface can be challenging, especially if you are interested in reconstructing how frequently they land. Now, researchers have uncovered a wealth of well-preserved meteorites that allowed them to reconstruct the rate of falling meteorites over the past two million years.

“Our purpose in this work wa...

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