List of California Meteorites

This updated list is organized into Falls, and Finds from dry-lakes, and Finds not from dry-lakes.

This is a project that I've been working on ever since I discovered that it was hard to find a list of California Meteorites with detailed information that wasn't out-of-date. The pace of meteorite-recovery in the state of California is rapid and the rate is increasing. Keeping such a list "up-to-date" without losing some details regarding recovery data is becoming more of a challenge.

The original article for this month's installment of Bob's Findings was to be "Part 2" of my previous "San Bernardino Wash (L5)" article. After I had two of my finds from that strewn-field classified, I submitted those meteorites to the Nomenclature Committee (NomCom) in order to get formally-approved names for them. But those names still haven't been approved. In fact, I may be required to show more convincing data that my L5-chondrite finds are not actually related to the already-named L5-chondrite strewn-field that they were found within, before the NomCom feels comfortable approving my name request. So, until that happens, I will have to save my original article for a later installment.

Finding another topic to write about, while sticking to the theme of California meteorites, wasn't a problem for me. The postponement of that other article has given me an opportunity to present in this article the current state of my progress in my on-going project - that of maintaining a more detailed "List of California Meteorites".

On the Internet the only site with up-to-date information on all of the formally-recognized meteorite is the Meteoritical Bulletin Database. This website comes with a search engine that can produce a list of the current "California, USA" meteorites. This listing of raw data from that Database is the source of much of the information on my List. I consider this database to be the defining document for all the world's meteorites.

Credit has to be given to Dr. Petrus Jenniskins for coming up with the idea of compiling a list that separates and highlights meteorite falls, while also listing separately meteorites found on dry-lakes from those found elsewhere. In addition, falls are listed chronologically (starting with the most recent), while the dearth of dry-lake finds are listed alphabetically for the readers convenience. This produces a list that has meteorite falls, which are the most sought for information, appearing at the top of the list, while the numerous finds from dense collection areas (i.e., dry-lakes) appear lower in the list. Dr. Jenniskins compilation of the 4 California falls is very informative and current, but the list of finds is dated as "2009" and could use an update. So, I forward to him an update for his website. But, just in case his "Meteorites of California" webpage on the NASA-SETI-CAMS website can't be updated or gets moved, or worse, gets removed, I have reserved a domain for California Meteorites, which I hope will give this list more permanency.

For a link to my newly updated "List of California Meteorites" - click HERE!

Meteorites with Place = California from the Meteoritical Bulletin: the search results for all meteorites found in "California, USA" - Published in Meteoritical Society - Meteoritical Bulletin, Database.

Meteorites of California the list of formaly-recognized California meteorite falls and finds that is curated by Dr. Petrus Jenniskins, on the NASA-Ames-CAMS website hosted by the Seti Institute.

My previous articles can be found *HERE*

For for more information, please contact me by email: Bolide*chaser