Miguel

Bechar 006 is a lunar meteorite that comes from the Sahara desert, near the border between Morocco and Algeria and it was found in 2022. This slice comes from the main mass that was 2600g.

Found in Western Sahara in 2022, this slice comes from the only mass found of this rare classification. Acapulcoites are named after the meteorite that fell in Acapulco, Mexico in 1913. They are primitive achondrites, a group whose chemical composition is similar to the composition of chondrites, but their texture is igneous, indicative of melting processes.

In July 2007 african nomads reported in Mali a smoke cloud and some detonations but no fireball was seen. This meteorite fall happened on the 2nd or 3rd of July but exact day is undetermined. In autumn and winter of the same year many fragments were finally found with a total known weight of about 100 kilograms. It is an H5 chondrite. This piece is remarkably fresh, complete and oriented.

On January 31st, 1991 at 22:00 local time, a meteorite shower fell in a rural area in Brazil ~18 km E of the village Campos Sales. 15 days later a total of 23.68 kg of stones was recovered from grainfields along a road. 5 large specimens, ranging from 3 g to 3.5 kg (total = 21.3 kg) were collected. According to local eyewitnesses, the shower came from a WSW direction. It is an L5 chondrite.

On September 6, 1918, at 15:00 hours UT, a brilliant fireball appeared over Ryazan, Russia. Seconds later many atmospheric detonations were heard throughout the surrounding countryside. Several stones totaling 328 kg were recovered in the Saratov Oblast. This is one of the very few pieces of Saratov (all dug up from one impact hole) that not only retains some fusion crust but also, clearly has soil stains from the impact. This is one of the largest fragments in private hands in the world.

Viñales is a very new meteorite. This meteorite fell on February 1st, 2019 in the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba. Unlike the Chelyabinsk event, in this case no people were injured although a loud sonic boom was heard by the locals and recorded in a video (see link below). Its smoke trail was recorded by several people and it was seen in Cuba and even from the United States, where the weather radars recorded the event. Fragments have been mainly found in Viñales, a town in which people live on tourism and tobacco production. Due to the extensive rains, plants in the area are very tall, which makes finding the meteorites an almost imposible task. Viñales has been officially classified now as an L6 chondrite with shock veins and some inclusions of melt rock (breccia). Video of the smoke trail and sonic boom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KusbaK-B1DE.

This is the main mass of the Viñales meteorite fall. It is completely covered in fusion crust, with regmaglypts and sits comfortably in several faces. Weight is slightly over 10 kilos.

Dronino is an iron meteorite and hence it probably comes from the core of asteroids that were destroyed by impacts with other bodies. It is an alloy of iron-nickel mainly although it contains other trace elements.

Structurally it is an ataxite which means “without structure”. Ataxites have >18% Nickel content and do not show Widmanstatten lines upon etching, hence their name. Most of the meteoric iron is kamacite with minor amounts of taenite.

The first piece was found in 2000 while mushroom collecting. The finder kept it for years and it was definitely identified as a meteorite in 2003 by a Russian museum.

In July 2007 african nomads reported in Mali a smoke cloud and some detonations but no fireball was seen. This meteorite fall happened on the 2nd or 3rd of July but exact day is undetermined. In autumn and winter of the same year many fragments were finally found with a total known weight of about 100 kilograms. This meteorite is classified as a chondrite H5, S3, W0. 

On the afternoon of August 30, 1887, a bright fireball was witnessed followed by several explosions near the town of Ochansk, Russia. Many people saw the fireball and subsequent fall of meteorites. This cement-grey chondrite fell over a large area with specimens of all sizes, the largest with a mass of 115 kg that now is in a museum in Tartarstan, Russia. Analysis showed the Ochansk meteorite specimens to be chondrites of the H4 type.

This meteorite is classified as NWA 13518. It was found in 2019 near the border of Algeria and Mali was bought from a Saharaui dealer in Mauritania in March 2020. Rumuruti chondrites (also known as R chondrites) are a very rare type of chondrites. Less than 0,5% of chondrites are classified as R. There was only one observed fall of an R chondrite that left a single piece of just 67 grams. They differ from ordinary chondrites mainly in having most of the metal in the form of sulfides, they are more oxidized and contain little metallic Iron and Nickel. They have a matrix with more dust (about 50%), a higher trace element concentration of Zinc and Selenium and a higher Oxygen-17 ratio than ordinary chondrites. Implanted solar wind is found in more than half of the R chondrites analyzed for noble gases until today. Apparently, R chondrites come from an asteroid’s regolith (surface with loose solid materials). They are called “R” after the Rumuruti meteorite, which fell on 28th January 1934 in the Rift Valley, Kenya.