Machinga
Seen to fall in 1981 in Malawi · 93 kg recovered · L6
Machinga is the heaviest of the five falls recorded in Malawi. It is the heaviest of the two L6 falls recorded in Malawi. Zomba came down only 5.5 km to the north-east, in 1899.
- Group
- L chondrites
- Recorded position
- 15.212° S, 35.242° E
The map is centred on Machinga. Rings every 200 km; numbers match the table below.
Nearest recorded falls
Within 250 km lie two other recorded falls.
What L6 means
L6 is the label for an ordinary chondrite with low total iron, petrologic type 6, strongly heated on its parent body. Machinga carries about 31 times the median recovered mass of L6 falls. By recovered mass Machinga ranks 11th of the 254 L6 falls. The nearest other L6 fall is Zomba in Malawi, 5.5 km away. In date order among L6 falls, the one before Machinga is Guangrao (1980, China) and the one after is Salem (1981, the United States).
Machinga in Malawi’s record
In date order Machinga is number 4 of the 5 falls recorded in Malawi, which run from 1899 to 1988. The fall recorded before Machinga in Malawi is Dowa (1976); the next is Chisenga (1988).
The 1980s
Machinga is one of 54 falls dated to the 1980s. Elsewhere, the record lists six other falls in 1981, among them Omolon in Russia, Akyumak in Turkey, Gursum in Ethiopia.