Description
Legendary aubrite fall in the US. Sold with label/certificate of authenticity.
Provenance : University of New Mexico > Ruben Garcia
39°41’N, 99°52’W
Fell february 18, 1948 at 4.56 pm
Achondrite, aubrite
Total mass : about 1,1 ton
Dimensions : 3.2 x 3 x 2.8 cm
« On july 3, 1948, Mr. Arthur E. Hahn from Norton, Kansas, and Mr. O. E. Gill from Wilsonville, Nebraska, discovered a nearly circular hole about 1.80 meters in diameter and 1.80 meters deep, in the ranch Whitney, about 1200 meters from the boundary between the state of Kansas and Nebraska. Excavations in this hole were done on august 16, 1948 by Mr. Harold R. Hahn (son of Mr Hahn previously named) with the help of Mr. Dale Stevenson from Norton, Kansas, and Mr. Forrest Warren from Wilsonville, Nebraska ; they led to the discovery of a large aerolite whose upper part was buried about 30 centimeters in the hole formed by the impact. »
Published in « The Furnas County stone of the Norton County, Kansas-Furnas County Nebraska, achondritic fall » in Popular Astronomy, Vol. 56, 1948
Mineralogically, Norton County, like all aubrites, is mainly composed of fragments of pyroxene crystals rich in magnesium that is called enstatite and fragments of other rock types incorporated into the matrix during the collision between two asteroids (xenoliths). Chemically, the class of aubrites is associated with the class of enstatite chondrites that would be the primitive and not metamorphosed version. Isotopic measurements may suggest that these are primitive materials used in the formation of the earth.
