Where meteorites are seen to fall

Observed falls in NASA’s Meteorite Landings dataset (records to 2013) are recorded in 107 countries. The United States leads with 146, India follows with 124, and France, China and Russia complete the top five. By area, though, the densest record among countries with ten or more falls belongs to the Czech Republic, with 19.1 falls per 100,000 km².

Counts and density

A raw count favours large countries. Dividing by land area shows where falls were most often seen and recovered for the space available. Areas here are computed from Natural Earth borders on an equal-area projection, so they are close to, but not exactly, the official figures.

Smaller countries rise to the top: the first three on the list each cover less than 400,000 km². Large countries sink: Russia’s 48 falls give only 0.28 per 100,000 km². The pattern says more about who was there to watch, and who sent stones to a collection, than about the sky above each country.

By continent

Europe has 359 falls, Asia 320, North America 182, Africa 134, South America 49 and Oceania 19. The note on fall rates shows how these shares changed over time, with Africa gaining ground since 1950.

Crowded and lonely places

Some falls have many recorded neighbours. The most crowded spots, counted as other falls within 250 km, are around Chainpur (26), Mhow (26), Mirzapur (26), Benares (a) (25), Khanpur (25). At the other extreme, the most isolated falls lie far from any other: Mokoia (2,133 km), Omolon (1,725 km), Undulung (1,725 km), Nassirah (1,590 km), Heredia (1,113 km).

Continents at a glance

Europe and Asia together hold 64 % of the falls. The table adds the number of countries with at least one fall on each continent and the earliest fall recorded there.

How close the falls sit inside each country

Another way to read density is the distance from each fall to its nearest recorded neighbour. The table gives the median of that distance for every country with at least fifteen falls. A small median means falls in that country tend to have a neighbour close by; a large one means they are scattered. Japan has the tightest spacing, 32 km; Australia the widest, 463 km. The nearest neighbour may lie across a border, since distances ignore countries.

Around the largest cities

Large cities are where the most people live, but they are not where the most falls are recorded. The table takes the ten largest urban areas in Natural Earth’s list of populated places and counts the falls within 100 and 250 km of each, with the nearest fall. The counts are small everywhere, and they depend as much on the region’s history of collecting as on its population.

The same question for any town is answered by the What fell near tool.

Since 1950 only

Counting only falls from 1950 onward changes the order at the top. The five countries with the most recent falls are China (45), the United States (42), India (25), Japan (12) and Brazil (12). France, third over the whole record, drops out of this list.

The middle of the table

Between the leaders and the single-fall countries sit 20 countries with five to nine falls each. Several of them are in Africa and northern Europe. The table lists them with the years of their first and latest recorded fall.

Of all 1,063 falls, 18 have a recorded position on a coast or just offshore. They are counted in the nearest country within 30 km, so that a fall recorded on a beach is not lost to the sea.

Countries with a single fall

Exactly one observed fall is recorded in each of 23 countries: Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Eswatini, Ghana, Greece, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Peru, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Syria and Western Sahara. Each of those falls is listed on the country list.

The first fall of each leading country

The ten countries with the most falls start their records centuries apart. The table gives the earliest fall recorded in each.

Among these ten, the share of falls dated 1950 or later ranges from 9 % in France to 83 % in China. A country’s place in the ranking therefore depends on the period you look at. The decade pages draw that change one decade at a time.

Borders are today’s borders

Each fall is placed in a country by its recorded position and the present-day Natural Earth border. A fall in 1880 in a region that then belonged to another state is listed under the country that holds the place now. Positions on a coast are given to the nearest country within 30 km. Use What fell near to look past borders entirely and list the closest falls to any town.