Iron Meteorites - Occurrence

Occurrence

While they are fairly rare compared to the stony meteorites, comprising about 5.7% of witnessed falls, they have historically been heavily over-represented in meteorite collections. This is due to several factors:

• They are easily recognized as unusual even by laymen, as opposed to stony meteorites. Modern-day searches for meteorites in deserts and Antarctica yield a much more representative sample of meteorites overall.
• They are much more resistant to weathering.
• They are much more likely to survive atmospheric entry, and are more resistant to the resulting ablation. Hence they are more likely to be found as large pieces.

Since they are also denser than stony meteorites, iron meteorites also account for almost 90% of the mass of all known meteorites, about 500 tons. All the largest known meteorites are of this type, including the largest—the Hoba meteorite.