Meteorites are rocks from space that have fallen on Earth. They are fragments of various bodies in the solar system which were sent toward Earth by impacts on asteroids, the Moon, and the planets. They are ancient rocks which provide evidence for the origin and evolution of the solar system.
More meteorite fragments have been recovered from Antarctica than from the rest of the world combined. As of 1993, over 15 000 meteorites have been collected in Antarctica compared to around 2600 in the rest of the world. Presumably, the probability of a meteorite falling on Antarctica is no greater than that of it falling on any other part of the world. Several factors contribute to making it easier to find meteorites in Antarctica. The first is that it is easier to see a dark meteorite, even a small one, on Antarctic ice than on bare ground or vegetation. The next is that the movement of Antarctic ice appears to concentrate meteorites and increase the number of specimens found. Meteorites fall on...
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Lindstrom, M.M. (1997). Antarctic meteorites . In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_12
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