Suizhou
Seen to fall in 1986 in China · 260 kg recovered · L6
Suizhou has the 18th-largest recovered mass of the 1,063 observed falls in NASA’s Meteorite Landings dataset (records to 2013). It is the third-heaviest of the 54 falls recorded in China. Fuhe came down only 18 km to the south-east, in 1945.
- Group
- L chondrites
- Recorded position
- 31.617° N, 113.467° E
The map is centred on Suizhou. Rings every 100 km; numbers match the table below.
Nearest recorded falls
Within 250 km lie four other recorded falls.
| # | Fall | Year | Class | Recovered | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fuhe | 1945 | L5 | 23 kg | 18 km south-east |
| 2 | Zaoyang | 1984 | H5 | 14 kg | 102 km north-west |
| 3 | Xingyang | 1977 | H6 | 76 kg | 113 km north-east |
| 4 | Laochenzhen | 1987 | H5 | 14 kg | 232 km north-east |
| 5 | Fuyang | 1977 | Unclassified stone | 2.5 kg | 270 km north-east |
| 6 | Changde | 1977 | H5 | 1.8 kg | 326 km south-west |
What L6 means
L6 is the label for an ordinary chondrite with low total iron, petrologic type 6, strongly heated on its parent body. Suizhou is the third-heaviest of the 254 L6 falls. Suizhou carries about 87 times the median recovered mass of L6 falls. The nearest other L6 fall is Hotse in China, 488 km away. In date order among L6 falls, the one before Suizhou is Lanxi (1986, China) and the one after is El Idrissia (1989, Algeria).
Suizhou in China’s record
In date order Suizhou is number 41 (shared with a fall of the same year) of the 54 falls recorded in China, which run from 1890 to 2010. The fall recorded before Suizhou in China is Lanxi (1986); the next is Tianzhang (1986).
The 1980s
Suizhou recovered the most mass of the 54 falls dated to the 1980s. Elsewhere, the record lists five other falls in 1986, among them Kokubunji in Japan, Raghunathpura in India, Oued el Hadjar in Morocco.