[meteorite-list] How Many Lunar Meteorites?

Meteorites USA eric at meteoritesusa.com
Mon Aug 23 13:40:04 EDT 2010


Hi List,

I know this has been talked about on-list but... I keep getting this 
question, or people that say they have found a "Lunar" meteorite. I'm 
wondering how many there actually are. I've heard numbers thrown about 
haphazardly, but no one has been able to give me a clear and concise answer.

The Met-Bull has "...130 records found for meteorites with historical 
types that contain "Lunar"...'

Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been recovered 
and classified, Ever? Or is my search flawed? (as a side note, it also 
says there are "...92 records found for meteorites with historical types 
that contain "Martian"...")

Dr. Randy Korotev's "List of Lunar Meteorites" on the Washinton 
University website has the number at 140. 
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm

Just for giggles I wanted to know how many total classified meteorites 
there actually were on the planet.

"...39146 valid meteorite names; 11959 provisional names; 4589 full-text 
writeups..."

That's a whopping 51,105 classifications. Wow!

Doing some simple math, 130 Lunar meteorites out of 51,105 total 
classifications means that "Lunars" only makeup about 0.254% of the 
total number of meteorite ever classified. (0.180% for Martian meteorites).

Are these number correct?

Regards,
Eric




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