Aubrites
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
achondrites
Chemical Class
Aubrite
Country
Year found
1919
Mass
17 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 11.82g
CHRISTIE'S Auction 9-23 Feb 2022 Lot#33 National Museum of Natural History / Smithsonian Institution
CHRISTIE'S Auction 9-23 Feb 2022 Lot#33 National Museum of Natural History / Smithsonian Institution
CHRISTIE'S Auction (9-23 Feb 2022)Lot#33
Provenance: National Museum of Natural History / Smithsonian Institution
This is 1 of 79 approved meteorites classified as Aubrite. Search for specimens in the Smithsonian Institution collection (U.S.): Search for this meteorite in the Natural History Museum collection (U.K.): Never published in the Meteoritical Bulletin
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
achondrites
Chemical Class
Aubrite
Country
Year found
2021
Mass
22.51 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 15.08g (2) 26.65g (3) 10.12g (4) 6.64g
(5) 2.98g
History: Scattered pieces of a very large, pale colored achondrite were found in February and March 2021 purportedly near Djoua, Algeria. Several small pieces were obtained by Ali Benamar, and three larger pieces were purchased by Aziz Zad in April 2021 from a dealer in Ouargla, Algeria. Additional material was acquired from Algerian dealers by Marcin Cimala and Habib Naji in May 2021 and by Mark Lyon (in collaboration with Craig Zlimen and Roberto Vargas) in July 2021. Physical characteristics: Exterior surfaces of the stones have black coatings in places which may be degraded fusion crust. Interiors are overall mottled beige and gray in color with sporadic small dark and rusty spots. Rare tiny grains of fresh metal are visible on polished pieces. Some large whitish grains (enstatite) are up to 1.5 cm across. Petrography: (A. Irving, UWS and P. Carpenter, WUSL) Very coarse grained unbrecciated aggregate of predominantly enstatite with accessory diopside, daubreelite, Ti-Cr-bearing troilite and rare Ni-poor kamacite. No plagioclase was found in the studied slice or endcut. Geochemistry: Enstatite (Fs0.1±0.3Wo0.7±0.1, range Fs0.0-0.8Wo0.6-1.0, N = 6), diopside (Fs0.3±0.5Wo44.9±3.4, range Fs0.0-0.9Wo48.3-41.9, N = 3), troilite (Ti 2.9 wt.%, Cr 0.3 wt.%), Ni-poor kamacite (Ni 1.5-2.2 wt.%, Si 0.02-0.08 wt.%, N = 4). Classification: Aubrite. Specimens: 138 g (26 g of which was donated by A. Benamar) including a polished slice and small polished endcut at UWB; remaining material with A. Zad and WangZ (8250 g), M. Cimala (1830 g), M. Lyon (3700 g in two pieces), C. Zlimen (2580 g), R. Vargas (120 g) and H. Naji (6014 g).
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
achondrites
Chemical Class
Aubrite-an
Country
Year found
1941
Mass
22 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 2.471g (2) 1.394g (3) 1.055g (4) 1.054g (5) 1.017g (6) 0.238g (7) 10g(14pieces)
(8) 1.49g(12pieces) (9) 1.31g(8pieces)
(10) 1.24g(11pieces) (11) 1.17g(11pieces)
(12) 1.10g(7pieces)
This is 1 of 6 approved meteorites classified as Aubrite-an. Search for specimens in the Smithsonian Institution collection (U.S.): Search for this meteorite in the Natural History Museum collection (U.K.): Search for this meteorite in the Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide database (Siena, Italy): Never published in the Meteoritical Bulletin
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
achondrites
Chemical Class
Aubrite
Country
Year found
2024
Mass
983 g
[Museum Collection]
(1) 1.880g (2) 1.07g (3) 0.285g (4) 0.195g (5) 0.082g (6) 0.058g (7) 0.050g
History: (P. Jenniskens, SETI; L. Hecht, A. Greshake, MNB; J. Helbert, DLR): A small asteroid 2024 BX1 was discovered at 21:48 UTC on 20 January 2024, by Hungarian astronomer K. Sárneczky observing from the Piszkéstet Station of Konkoly Observatory, Mátra Mountains, Hungary. From early astrometry, NASA’s Scout and ESA’s Meerkat Asteroid Guard impact hazard assessment systems identified the object as a potential impactor, gradually narrowing the impact time to 0:33 UTC on 21 January, and in the half hour before impact predicting it to pass in a steep trajectory over the village of Nennhausen about 60 km west of Berlin, Germany. At that time, a fireball was observed by many eyewitnesses and recorded by allsky cameras of the European Fireball Network, IMO/AllSky7, FRIPON and by video security cameras. Bolide analysis and strewn field calculations performed by P. Spurný and J. Borovička (Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences), using an ALADIN model wind profile provided by R. Brožková (Czech Hydrometeorological Institute), indicated that strong winds blew the surviving meteorites in a south-east direction, predicting the meteorites to fall just south of the village of Ribbeck, between Retzow and Berge. The calculations were confirmed by D. Vida (UWO) based on a WTF model wind profile provided by H. Devillepoix (Curtin University, Australia). Ribbeck is known from an 1889 poem by T. Fontane, "Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland," well known to German school children. Starting on 22 January, searches were conducted by a team of scientists and students from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MNB), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Free University Berlin (FUB), the Technical University Berlin (TUB), SETI, and members of the Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V. (AKM), as well as by professional and amateur meteorite hunters. Spectral observations of the fireball in the European Fireball Network indicated that the meteorites were poor in iron and possibly rich in enstatite. Due to the terrestrial appearance of the meteorites, the first find was made not until 25 January, when F. Nikodem, A. Owczarzak, M. Nebelski and K. Kmieciak of Poland, found the first meteorite on a field just west of Ribbeck broken up into three fragments totaling 171 g. The next morning, FUB students D. Dieter and C. Weihe located two small meteorites, 5.2 and 3.1 g, that confirmed the calculated location of the strewn field and the ambient winds. Several tens of meteorites were found in the next days. The largest fragment so far is a 225 g found by K. Kmieciak on 29 January. Physical characteristics: (A. Greshake, C. Hamann, L. Hecht, MNB) The various individuals show rounded, egg-shaped, and angular shapes, have a gray-white patchy appearance and are partly to fully covered by fresh, whitish to dark grayish, often intensely cracked fusion crust. In many cases, the fusion crust contains transparent, often highly vesicular areas that appear to cover the dull gray and dull white areas in the form of thin veneers or stringers of quenched melt. Some rocks are fragmented, thereby exposing the whitish interior with large mineral grains already visible to the naked eye. Petrography: (A. Greshake, C. Hamann, L. Hecht, MNB) The meteorite is a coarse-grained achondritic breccia predominantly composed of large, up to 1.2 cm sized, mostly angular whitish enstatite grains, less abundant, up to 1.5 mm sized forsterite crystals, and minor sodic feldspar set in a fine-grained interstitial cataclastic matrix consisting of related material. Opaque phases include troilite, alabandite, oldhamite, heideite, keilite, djerfisherite, kamacite, and taenite. Enstatite and forsterite show pronounced undulatory extinction. All phases are intensely fractured and enstatite contains several sets of planar cracks. No diopside detected. Geochemistry: Enstatite: Fs0Wo0.7±0.1 (Fs0Wo0.6-0.9, n=10); olivine: Fa0, n=10; plagioclase: An1.4-4.8Ab93.1-96.2Or2.0-2.4, n=5); troilite contains : 0.18±0.01 wt% Cr and 0.94±0.3 wt% Ti, N=3; kamacite contains : 4.65±0.11 wt% Ni, 0.94±0.2 wt% Co, and 0.07±0.01 Si, N=3; taenite contains : 32.4±0.3 wt% Ni, 0.56±0.2 wt% Co, and 0.10±0.01 Si, N=3 Classification: Aubrite Specimens: Numerous fragments ranging from 225 to 2 g have been recovered. A detailed list of major masses and their respective finder and holder can be found at https://karmaka.de/?p=34832. 30 g is at MNB.
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
achondrites
Chemical Class
Aubrite
Country
Year found
2022
Mass
17 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 37.88g (2) 13.05g (3) 3.06g
History: This meteorite was found in late March 2022 in the region of "Wad Alhath" in Mali, about 54 km northeast of the village of Tamanieret and 245 km southeast of Taoudenni, by Sahrawi meteorite hunters. The total recovered amount was approximately 17 kg. Bachir Salek obtained 12.5 kg, including the main mass, which weighs 3550 g. Physical characteristics: This meteorite consists primarily of clusters of coarse, interlocking enstatite crystals with a pegmatitic texture. Individual crystals are cm-sized, many showing distinct cleavage planes and traces. Some enstatite crystals are milky-white in color, while a few are colorless translucent to transparent and gemmy. The enstatite crystals separate from the clusters easily, and the largest single crystal weighed 45 grams and was approximately 5 cm long and 2 cm wide. There are also scattered dark-colored patches on some of the crystals. Significant amounts of smooth cream-colored to white fusion crust are visible, although some fusion crust is dark-colored. No vesicles are present. The meteorite appears to be unbrecciated. Petrography: (A. Ross and C. Agee, UNM) Electron microprobe analyses and reflected light microscopy show that enstatite makes up approximately 98% of this meteorite. Scattered small diopside grains were detected. A single olivine grain was found in the sample microprobe mount. Small grains of kamacite, taenite, schreibersite, Ti-troilite, troilite, and daubreelite were the only accessory opaques observed. No other sulfides were detected. No feldspar was found in the microprobe mount. Geochemistry: (A. Ross, UNM) Enstatite Fs0.0±0.0Wo0.9±0.1, n=6; diopside Fs0.0±0.0Wo45.5±0.8, n=3; forsterite Fa0.0, n=1; kamacite Ni=4.3±0.8, Co=0.4±0.2 (wt%); taenite Ni=48.7, Co=0.11 (wt%). Classification: Aubrite, non-brecciated (after Keil, 1989). This aubrite has one of the highest modal abundances of enstatite ever reported (~98%). The enstatite, diopside, and forsterite of this meteorite have some of lowest iron contents (below electron microprobe major element detection limits) ever documented in an aubrite. Specimens: 216 g on deposit at UNM, Bachir Salek holds the main mass.
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
achondrites
Chemical Class
Aubrite
Country
Year found
2006
Mass
906 g
[Museum Collection]
(1) 2.0g
History and physical characteristics: Sixty-one pieces with a total weight of 906 g were purchased in Tagounite, Morocco in May 2007. Most of the stones are medium to dark brown with some remnant fusion crust. Petrography: (T. Bunch and J. Wittke, NAU) A brecciated cumulate rock with clasts as large as 2 cm. The intact lithology is dominated by subhedral to anhedral polysynthetically twinned enstatite with fine-grained intercumulus intergrowths of feldspathic glasses and a silica phase. Other minerals include graphite, FeS, daubreelite, schreibersite, niningerite, perryite as exsolution lamellae in Si-bearing kamacite and Zn-bearing brezinaite. Large clasts show a multitude of sub-parallel, closely spaced compression fractures. Shock level is S3 and the weathering grade is W5 for small pieces (
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
achondrites
Chemical Class
Aubrite
Country
Year found
2019
Mass
564 g
[Museum Collection]
(1) 7.45g (2) 4.16g (3) 2.47g
History: Purchased by Zaid Sbitti in November 2019 from a dealer in Ouargla, Algeria. Petrography: (A. Irving, UWS and P. Carpenter, WUSL) Breccia composed of large clasts of enstatite (with diopside exsolution lamellae) and subordinate forsterite set within a finer grained matrix composed of enstatite, sodic plagioclase, Cr-troilite, niningerite and Si-bearing kamacite. Geochemistry: Enstatite (Fs0.0-0.1Wo0.9-1.1, N = 2), diopside (Fs0.0-0.1Wo44.4-45.8, N = 2), forsterite (Fa0.0±0.0, N = 2), plagioclase (Ab86.1An0.5Or13.4), kamacite (Ni = 3.0 wt.%, Si = 3.1 wt.%), troilite (Cr = 2.8 wt.%). Classification: Aubrite. Specimens: 24.7 g in the form of a polished endcut at UWB; remainder held by Mr. L. Ouabicha and Mr. Z. Sbitti.