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Technically speaking, landing is coming to rest after making contact with the ground.

Yes, but isn't it supposed to be smooth rather than violent?

Ships land, as do planes, drones, and skydivers.

Meteorites crash, fall ... uh ... collide with ... but land?

Mazurek said the meteorite came with a barn he bought in 1988 in
Edmore. He said the farmer who sold him the property told him it
landed in his backyard in the 1930s.

Did he mean that ironically? "Meteorite landed": a quick google search returns 30,000 results.

I mean, come on. John Harrington comes to mind:

Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason?

For if it prosper,
none dare call it Treason.

Any thoughts?

The verb land is a verbification of the noun land. So there is not really any "smoothness" inherent to the word. Sure, a meteorite crashes, collides, impacts, destroys, ploughs into, wrecks land, but in every case, the space rock makes contact with the land. It "lands."

On a side note, a plane can land violently, but a meteorite simply 'lands,' unless you personify its action with, say, the wraths of the gods. :)

A Google Books search shows “hit” as a more common verb used in relation to meteorites reaching the Earth.

Land is also used, probably on the following connotation:

to hit or strike the ground, as from a height:

• The ball landed at the far side of the court.

(Dictionary.com)

From Perspectives on Astronomy :

Meteorites hit Earth every day, and occasionally a large one can form a crater.

The expression "Landing a blow" comes to mind.

It seems to indicate that landing is not necessarily a gentle one.

(As for "hit" - it does indeed seem better for a meteorite. But it has a slightly different meaning. The quote you supplied wanted to make the point that the meteorite was there.)

It's strange that none of the answers already given chose to rely on a dictionary definition.

land
intransitive verb

2c : to strike or meet a surface (as after a fall)

// landed on my head

// The cat fell from the tree but landed on its feet.

The phrase make landfall means

to reach land after a journey by sea or air

and this describes exactly how a meteoroid arrives to become a meteorite. Indeed it describes the arrival of a space rock far better than the arrival of a ship, which does not fall to land, or a plane, which must not fall to land.

The meteorite made landfall

Otherwise it could be a falling star or a shooting star if its attempt to immigrate with a new name fails.