The Meteoritics & Planetary Science for Feb (vol. 61 #2) is finally out, don’t ask me what’s the holdup:
Lee, M. R. Glazer, J. Rapid terrestrial weathering of the CI1 carbonaceous chondrite find Oued Chebeika 002 p. 211 .70089
Luther, R. Artemieva, N. Schmalen, A. et al. Small but mighty: Impact hazards from iron Near-Earth Objects p. 224 .70086
My usual disclaimer: there’s actually a lot of relevant stuff in each issue of MAPS. I have to limit it to the ‘best’ ones (per my subjective opinions) rather than just regurgitate the whole issue.
The meteorite Oued Chebeika 002 was a find- a meteorite whose fall (the meteor display in the atmosphere) was not seen, and therefore undated. Still, Oued Chebeika is made of fragile stuff, and could not have been sitting on the ground for years and years without erosion and dispersion. But there was some time spent on Earth, and some effects of that time. Lee et al. describe the secondary (but nontrivial) ‘damage’ the meteorite has suffered from its months on the desert floor.
Iron meteor(ites) are not fragile. That’s the problem: would you rather be hit with a softball, or a bullet? Iron meteorites are more likely to make it through the atmosphere and reach the ground, and more likely to cause damage, even in smaller sizes than stonier, less-durable meteor(oids). Though true iron meteorites are far rarer than stony meteorites, the issue exists and is still open. Luther et al. try to fill a pedagogical gap: how much risk should we assign to such rare but dangerous irons?