Meteorite fall
Meteorite name Fall observation date Country State , province , or region Classification
Nogata May 19 , 861 Japan Kyūshū L6
Narni 921 Italy Umbria Stone
Loket ( formerly Elbogen ) 1400 Czech Republic ( formerly Bohemia ) Karlovarský kraj IID iron
Rivolta d'Adda Mar 22 , 1491 Italy Lombardy Stone
Ensisheim Nov 7 , 1492 France Alsace LL6
Valdinoce ( Cesena ) Jan 26 or 28 , 1496 Italy Emilia-Romagna Stone
Oliva-Gandia May 26 , 1520 Spain Valencian Community Stone
Castrovillari Jan 9 , 1583 Italy Calabria Stone
List of meteorite falls -- Oldest
The German physicist Ernst Chladni , sometimes considered as the father of meteoritics , [ 7 ] was the first to publish in modern Western thought ( in 1794 ) the then audacious idea that meteorites are rocks from space . [ 8 ] There were already several documented cases , one of the earliest was the Aegospotami meteorite of 467 BC and which became a landmark for 500 years , of which Diogenes of Apollonia said : [ 9 ] With the visible stars revolve stones which are invisible , and for that reason nameless . They often fall on the ground and are extinguished , like the stone star that came down on fire at Aegospotami . showing that the Greeks had a much earlier idea that meteorites are rocks from space . Below is a list of 8 confirmed falls pre-1600 AD . However , unlike the Loket ( Elbogen ) and Ensisheim meteorites , not all are as well-documented .
Meteorite falls, also called observed falls, are meteorites collected after their fall from space was observed by people or automated devices. All other meteorites are called finds. There are more than 1,100 documented falls listed in widely used databases, most of which have specimens in modern collections. As of January 2019, the Meteoritical Bulletin Database had 1,180 confirmed falls.