Where are they found?

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Where are they found?

HED meteorites have been found a wide variety of locations including some very unique and diverse occurrences. Some of the classic observed HED falls include Stannern, Johnstown, Moore County, and Bununu. A few recent falls include Orlando, a eucrite that fell in Florida in 2007, and Puerto Lapice, another eucrites that fell in Spain in 2008 (Trigo-Rodriguez et al., 2009). A particularly spectacular and interesting fall was recorded by the Australia Camera Network in 2008; Bunburra Rockhole was the name of a eucrite recovered by the camera network project, and because it was recorded upon arrival into Earth's atmosphere, much additional information was gained. Its orbit and origin location within the asteroid belt was determined with some certainty (Figure 10), and it appears to be associated with the v6 secular resonance with which many of the Vestoids are associated (Veskorny et al., 2008; Bland et al., 2009).

orbital reconstruction
Figure 10: Orbital reconstruction of Bunburra Rockhole (red) from the study of Bland et al. (2009).

Three more noteworthy and spectacular find locations bear mention. First, the Eltanin impact crater on the floor of the Pacific Ocean is associated with a 1 to 4 km sized basaltic achondrite or mesosiderite impactor. The 2.15 Ma age impact left many kg of material in the ocean floor to be recovered over the last few decades (e.g., Gersonde et al., 1997). A second find are a group of meteorites on the martian surface which appear to be mesosiderite materials (Schroeder et al., 2008). These samples have been identified by the Mars Exploration Rovers at Victoria Crater. Finally, a basaltic achondrite micrometeorite fragment was recently found in the Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica, described by Gounelle et al. (2009), and appears distinct from the main group eucrites and may even represent one of several distinct parent bodies for the HED meteorites.

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