Abstract
Collecting meteorites just after their fall is a fundamental element to
continue to gather information on the history of our solar system. During the period
1800-2020, 170 observed meteorite falls were recorded in Africa. The mass of
fragments collected for any African meteorite range from 1.4 g to 175 kg, with a
predominance of cases from 1 to 10 kg. The average rate of observed falls in Africa is
low, with only one recovery per 1.29 years (i.e., 0.026 per year and per million km2
).
The African collection of observed falls is dominated by chondrites (84.4%), as in the
world collection. The achondrites (10%) include three famous Martian meteorite falls:
Nakhla (Egypt), Tissint (Morocco), and Zagami (Nigeria), whereas the observed iron
meteorite falls are relatively rare (i.e., 5% of the collection). The rate of documented
falls in Africa has been increasing since 1860, with 88% recovered during the period
1910-2020. Most of these falls have been observed and then collected in North-Western Africa, Eastern Africa and Southern Africa, in countries that feature a large
area and a large but evenly distributed population. Other factors that are proven to be
favorable to the observation and collection of meteorite falls on the African territory
are a genuine meteorite education, the semi-arid to arid climate offering clear skies
most of the time, cultivated land or sparse grassland and the possible access to the fall
location favored by a low percentage of forest cover and a dense road network..