Zomba

Seen to fall in 1899 in Malawi · 7.5 kg recovered · L6

Zomba is the earliest of the five falls recorded in Malawi. It is the lightest of the two L6 falls recorded in Malawi. Machinga came down only 5.5 km to the south-west, in 1981.

Group: L chondrites
Recorded position: 15.183° S, 35.283° E

The map is centred on Zomba. Rings every 200 km; numbers match the table below.

Nearest recorded falls

Within 250 km lie two other recorded falls.

#	Fall	Year	Class	Recovered	Distance
1	Machinga	1981	L6	93 kg	5.5 km south-west
2	Dowa	1976	Unclassified stone	642 g	224 km north-west
3	Mtola	1944	Unclassified stone	1.1 kg	453 km north-west
4	Mangwendi	1934	LL6	22 kg	479 km south-west
5	Peramiho	1899	Eucrite-mmict	165 g	503 km north
6	Chisenga	1988	Iron, IIIAB	3.9 kg	605 km north

What L6 means

L6 is the label for an ordinary chondrite with low total iron, petrologic type 6, strongly heated on its parent body. By recovered mass Zomba ranks 76th of the 254 L6 falls. The nearest other L6 fall is Machinga in Malawi, 5.5 km away. In date order among L6 falls, the one before Zomba is Andover (1898, the United States) and the one after is Leonovka (1900, Russia).

Dark ticks: 254 L6 falls, median 3 kg (dotted). Grey: all others.

Zomba in Malawi’s record

By recovered mass Zomba comes second of 5 there. The next fall recorded in Malawi is Mtola, in 1944.

Bigger dots carry more recovered mass.

The 1890s

Zomba is one of 51 falls dated to the 1890s. Elsewhere, the record lists six other falls in 1899, among them Bjurböle in Finland, Allegan in the United States, Magnesia in Turkey.