Author Archives: moky99

Puerto Lápice                    39°21’N, 3°31’W Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain Fall: 10 May 2007, 19: 57 local time (UT +2h) Achondrite (eucrite, brecciated) History: At 17: 57 P.M. (UT) on May 10, 2007, a brilliant fireball of absolute magnitude -14 ± 4 was widely seen all over Spain. The fireball traveled from the south to the north and experienced various explosions along its trajectory. The Spanish Fireball Network (SPMN) and numerous images taken by observers documented the fall. Physical characteristics: […]

Portales Valley Roosevelt County, New Mexico, USA Fell 1998 June 13, ~07:30 MDT (~13:30 UT) Ordinary chondrite (H6) After detonations were heard and smoky trails seen in the sky, a shower of meteorites landed near Portales, New Mexico. 53 objects have been recovered, with a total mass of 71.4 kg. The largest pieces weighed 16.5 kg (witnessed to fall by Nelda Wallace and Fred Stafford), 17.0 kg (found by Elton Brown), and at least nine others over 1 kg. A […]

Peekskill New York, USA Fell 1992 October 9,19:50 EDT (23:50 GMT) Ordinary chondrite (H6, monomict breccia) After a fireball and loud noise a stone fell on Michelle Knapp’s car, parked before her house at 207 Wells Street, Peekskill. A stone of 12,370 g and about 200 g in fragments were recovered. Information, classification and analysis, olivine Fa20, pyroxene Fs17, light, cm-sized H6 clasts in darker H6 matrix, Ignacio Casanova, Department of Geology, Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at […]

Northwest Africa 11331 (NWA 11331) (Northwest Africa) Purchased: 2017 Apr Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia) History: Material excavated from a site near Tindouf, Algeria was purchased by Pierre-Marie Pelé in April 2017 from a dealer in Rissani, Morocco. Physical characteristics: The stones (total weight 318 g) have distinctive reddish-brown, clay-rich exterior coatings. Fresh interiors exhibit whitish clasts in a dark-gray matrix. Petrography: (A. Irving and S. Kuehner, UWS) Breccia composed of angular mineral clasts of olivine, anorthite, exsolved pigeonite, orthopyroxene, unexsolved […]

Northwest Africa 10546 (NWA 10546) (Northwest Africa) Purchased: 2015 Nov Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia) History: Purportedly found near the border between Mauritania and Mali. Purchased by Pierre-Marie Pelé in November 2015 from a dealer in Ouarzazate, Morocco. Petrography: (A. Irving and S. Kuehner, UWS) Fragmental breccia composed of mineral clasts of anorthite, olivine, pigeonite, augite, subcalcic augite, silica polymorph, ilmenite (with inclusions of baddeleyite), Ti-Al-chromite and rare zircon. Microbubbles are present in parts of the finer grained matrix along with […]

Northwest Africa 10503 (NWA 10503) (Northwest Africa) Purchased: 2015 May Classification: Ungrouped achondrite History: Purchased by Fabien Kuntz in May 2015 from a dealer in Zagora, Morocco. Petrography: (A. Irving and S. Kuehner, UWS) Triple-grain-junction texture, grain size 0.1-0.7 mm. Very fresh assemblage of predominantly olivine with subordinate clinopyroxene (~20 vol.%), intermediate plagioclase (~10 vol.%), and accessory pyrrhotite, chromite, taenite and pentlandite. Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa31.8-32.0, FeO/MnO = 79-96, N = 3), clinopyroxene (Fs11.4-11.6Wo42.5-42.6, FeO/MnO = 43-44, N = 2), plagioclase (An32.3-33.9Or3.2-3.0). […]