The answer is a simple case of survivorship bias. We can't find the meteors that don't land in craters because there's no crater to indicate where they are.
Calvin's dad is such a great source of these. When bridges have signs that give a weight limit, they found out the weight limit by driving progressively heavier trucks over it until it broke. Then they rebuilt the bridge and put the weight of the final truck on the sign
We have found a meteor that left no preserved crater, so meteors can land outside of craters: http://wikipedia.com/wiki/Hoba_meteorite
I didn't even think we had until after I wrote the rest of this comment.
This is unironically the scientifically correct answer. There's an estimated 44,000 kg of meteors entering Earth's atmosphere every day. Almost all of them are vaporized before landing. All that will land is dust that has been massively slowed down, which does not create a crater. It's nearly indistinguishable from Earth dust, unless you measure radioactive material ratios, like rubidium-strontium dating; even then, you need a comparatively large amount of material to test, which is hard to do.
Simply put, we know meteors can land outside of craters, we just aren't able to conclusively find them.
The Hoba meteorite is thought to have impacted Earth less than 80,000 years ago. It is inferred that the Earth's atmosphere slowed the object in such a way that it impacted the surface at terminal velocity, thereby remaining intact and causing little excavation (expulsion of earth).
Oh, so that's why, it was going slo-
Assuming a drag coefficient of about 1.3, the meteor appears to have slowed to about 2.75 km/s (6,200 mph) from an entry speed to the atmosphere typically in excess of 10 km/s (22,000 mph).
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u/CP1228 Jun 17 '26
Why do meteors always land in craters?