Meteorite Rarity
Meteorites are extraordinarily rare on a planet-wide scale. The entire global inventory of classified meteorites would fit in a few shipping containers, and certain categories such as lunar and Martian specimens are scarcer per ounce than almost any natural material on Earth, including most gemstones.
Written by Brian McDonald, IMCA #3323, Treasure Coast Meteorite Co.
How Many Meteorites Exist on Earth?
The Meteoritical Bulletin Database currently lists more than 75,000 individually classified meteorites. Each one has been recovered, scientifically analyzed, and officially named by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. That number grows by roughly 1,000 to 2,000 entries each year, primarily from Antarctic and hot-desert recovery programs.
Although 75,000 may sound like a large number, it is small in absolute terms. The combined mass of all classified meteorites is estimated at only a few hundred metric tons, less than the cargo capacity of two or three large container ships. For comparison, world gold production is around 3,000 metric tons per year, and a typical gold mine handles more material in a single day than has ever been recovered from space.
Rarity by Meteorite Type
Within the global catalog, certain meteorite types are vastly rarer than others. The numbers below reflect approximate proportions in the current classified inventory.
Why Lunar and Martian Meteorites Are So Rare
The rarity of lunar and Martian meteorites is a function of orbital mechanics. To send a rock from the Moon or Mars to Earth, an impactor must strike the parent body hard enough to launch material above the local escape velocity. From the Moon, that requires a speed greater than 2.4 km/s. From Mars, it requires more than 5 km/s, against a gravitational well that is much deeper and against a thin atmosphere that further slows ejecta.
Only a small fraction of large impact events produce material that escapes, and only a small fraction of that material is eventually swept up by Earth's gravity. The journey itself can take millions of years, and the surviving fragments are typically small. Most lunar meteorites and Martian meteorites recovered to date weigh under 1 kilogram.
The total mass of lunar meteorites on Earth, including all known specimens worldwide, is roughly 1,000 kilograms (just over one metric ton). The total mass of Martian meteorites is even smaller, around 250 kilograms. By comparison, the world produces about 3,000 metric tons of gold each year. Mass for mass, Martian meteorites are millions of times rarer than gold.
Documented Martian meteorites routinely sell for $500 to $2,000 per gram, with exceptional specimens priced much higher. Lunar meteorites are similar. By comparison, gold trades at roughly $80 per gram, which means that ordinary planetary meteorites are 6 to 25 times more valuable per gram than gold simply because there is so little of them.
Witnessed Falls: A Special Category of Rarity
An entirely separate dimension of rarity is the difference between a "find" (a meteorite recovered by hunters but not seen to fall) and a "fall" (a meteorite observed entering the atmosphere and recovered shortly afterward).
Only about 1,300 witnessed falls have been documented in all of recorded history. Each one carries a unique scientific value because there is no terrestrial weathering between the fall and the recovery, which preserves the original composition for laboratory analysis. Famous historical falls include Ensisheim (1492), Pultusk (1868), Allende (1969), Murchison (1969), Sikhote-Alin (1947), and Chelyabinsk (2013).
Within the collector market, a documented fall typically commands a substantial premium over a find of the same classification, particularly if the specimen comes with provenance materials such as recovery photos, fall reports, or original collector documentation.
Meteorites are rarer than gold per ounce, rarer than diamonds per gram, and absolutely unique in that no future technology can produce them. They exist only in the small quantities the solar system has happened to deliver.
Why Meteorites Will Always Be Rare
Unlike most rare materials on Earth, meteorites cannot be created, manufactured, or replenished. New ones arrive only at the rate the solar system delivers them, and most are lost to oceans, jungles, weathering, or simple invisibility. Recovery programs in Antarctica and the hot deserts are extraordinarily productive, but they are essentially mining the accumulated falls of tens to hundreds of thousands of years.
This means the world's meteorite supply is effectively fixed in the short term and grows only slowly over time. Collector demand, by contrast, continues to rise. Authentic, well-documented meteorites have appreciated steadily for decades, and the rarest categories (lunar, Martian, certain irons with unique compositions, classified pallasites) have appreciated more rapidly.
The rarity is also categorical. A new gold deposit can be mined; a new diamond can be cut; a new ruby can be heat-treated. But there will never be a new Allende meteorite, a new Murchison, or a new fall from the famous Pueblito de Allende that arrived in February 1969. Each meteorite represents a one-time event, and once the specimens are in collections, they are functionally all that will ever exist of that fall.
Related Questions
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Frequently Asked Questions
How rare are meteorites really?
Extremely rare. Only about 75,000 individual meteorites have ever been catalogued worldwide, with a combined mass of just a few hundred metric tons. By comparison, gold and most gemstones are produced in much larger quantities every year.
Are lunar meteorites rarer than gold?
Yes, by an enormous margin. The total mass of lunar meteorites on Earth is roughly 1,000 kilograms. World gold production is around 3,000,000 kilograms per year. Mass for mass, lunar meteorites are millions of times rarer than gold.
How many Martian meteorites are there?
Fewer than 400 classified Martian meteorites are known worldwide, with a combined total mass of around 250 kilograms. Until samples are returned by future Mars missions, these meteorites are the only physical pieces of Mars available for study on Earth.
What is the rarest type of meteorite?
Martian meteorites are usually considered the rarest broadly available category. Within Martian meteorites, ungrouped or paired specimens with unique compositions (such as NWA 7034 "Black Beauty") are rarer still. Certain unique iron and pallasite types, and some carbonaceous chondrites, are also extraordinarily scarce.
Will meteorites become even rarer over time?
Yes, in the practical sense. New falls add only a small number of recoverable specimens each year, while existing meteorites accumulate in museum and collector hands. The supply available on the open market tends to shrink as significant specimens leave the market for institutional collections.
