METEORITE FALLS IN CHINA AND SOME RELATED HUMAN CASUALTY EVENTS

Statistics of witnessed and recovered meteorite falls found in Chinese historical texts for the period from 700 B.C. to AD, 1920 are present ed. Several notable features can be seen in the binned distribution as a function of time. An apparent decrease in the number of meteorite r eports in the 18th century is observed. An excess of observed meteorit e falls in the period from 1840 to 1880 seems to correspond to a simil ar excess in European data. A chi(2) probability test suggests that th e association between the two data sets are real. Records of human cas ualties and structural damage resulting from meteorite falls are also given. A calculation based on the number of casualty events in the Chi nese meteorite records suggests that the probability of a meteorite st riking a human is far greater than previous estimates. However, it is difficult to verify the accuracy of the reported casualty events.