Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L5
Country
Year found
1999
Mass
9.22 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 36g
This is 1 of 8638 approved meteorites (plus 4 unapproved names) classified as L5. Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 89, MAPS 40, A201-A263 (2005)
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L5-6
Country
Year found
2023
Mass
1200 g
[Museum Collection]
(1) 2.589g
History: Asteroid 2023 CX1 was discovered on 12 February 2023, at 20:18:07 UTC by Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky working at the Piszkéstető Station of Konkoly Observatory in the Mátra Mountains (Hungary). With the support of astronomers at Višnjan Observatory in Tičan (Croatia), he predicted that the 1-meter rock would collide with Earth's atmosphere on 13 February 2023 at 2:59:21 UTC. Very soon after the event, the combination of telescope observations with those of amateur and professional cameras made it possible to determine that fragments of the asteroid that had survived the atmospheric passage had fallen in Normandy. Teams of the FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel project arrived on-site on the day following that of the the fall. Led by Observatoire de Paris, the FRIPON project consists of a camera network initiated in France to watch for incoming bolides, while the Vigie-Ciel citizen science project was designed by MNHNP to help recover meteorites on the ground. The teams comprised scientists from various institutions involved in the network (MNHNP, Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris-Saclay, Aix-Marseille Université, etc.), mediation professionals involved in the outreach actions of the program, amateurs and local residents recruited through the network and local communication. They contacted the mayors of the municipalities concerned, identified the owners of potentially interesting land, and obtained authorizations to search. The first systematic search was conducted on 15 February and, at 4.50 pm local time, the first stone (94 g) was found in the commune of Saint-Pierre-le-Viger by art student Loïs Leblanc-Rappe. The search continued in the days that followed, leading to the recovery of eleven more small stones (mass range 2-24 g) in the commune of Angiens. A number of meteorite hunters also arrived and recovered an unknown number of stones (presumed to be one or two dozen, with a total mass of several hundred g). Fieldwork for the FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel teams ended on 26 March, but leaflets were distributed in local mailboxes asking the inhabitants to inform the program of potential new finds. Contacts with the landowners are still ongoing as of today. All those who were asked generously agreed that the stones found on their property should become part of the French National Collection curated at MNHNP. Petrography (L. Ferrière, NHMV; I. Baziotis, AUA; M. Gounelle, B. Zanda, and S. Pont, MNHNP): Two polished sections were analyzed. The sample exhibits a chondritic texture, locally brecciated, with clasts of petrologic type 5 and 6. Relict chondrules are scarce in the clasts (and competely lacking in some clasts) due to high petrologic type. The meteorite shows abundant fractures and melt veins (up to 100 µm thick) displaying cross-cutting relations to each other. It contains porphyritic and nonporphyritic chondrules. The scarce barred olivine chondrules have a shape with irregular to non-discernible edges. The rock consists mainly of olivine and low Ca-pyroxene (orthopyroxene), as well as plagioclase (up to 100 µm in size), rare high-Ca pyroxene, Fe-Ni metal, oxides (chromites), troilite, phosphates (apatite and merrillite), and rare grains of tetrataenite. Olivine and plagioclase show undulatory extinction. Weak mosaicism and planar fractures (but no PDFs) were observed in olivine grains. In addition to the numerous shocked veins, the high-pressure phase jadeite was found and confirmed (using micro-Raman spectroscopy) in one of them. All together these observations suggest a shock stage of C-S3. The fusion crust displays at least two distinct layers, and in places even three layers; the layers are composed by nicely formed quenched crystals. Geochemistry (L. Ferrière, NHMV; I. Baziotis, AUA; M. Gounelle, B. Zanda, and S. Pont, MNHNP): Mineral composition by Electron Microprobe analyses. Olivine Fa25.17±0.42 (N=18); Orthopyroxene Fs21.51±0.39Wo1.63±0.18 (N=24); High-Ca Pyroxene Fs8.63±0.10Wo44.66±0.15 (N=4); Pagioclase An10.22Al84.1 (N=13); Sulfide: Ni <0.5 wt%. Kamacite with Ni in the range 5.6-6.3 wt% (N=2). Chromite with Mg# ranging from 9.9 to 14.0, Cr# from 80.2 to 81.1, and Ti# from 6.85 to 8.44. Physical characteristics: Magnetic susceptibility of 3.05 g full stone is log χ (× 10-9 m3/kg)=4.73 (J. Gattacceca, CEREGE). Classification (L. Ferrière, NHMV, and I. Baziotis, AUA): Ordinary Chondrite (L5-6), C-S3, W0. This is based on the following criteria: 1) olivine Fa composition is restricted in the range 24.6-26.5; 2) mean Ni in sulfide is <0.5 wt%; 3) the abundance of the low-Ca pyroxene is mainly orthorombic; 4) deviation of olivine analyses from the average is
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L6
Country
Year found
1963
Mass
7 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 5.748g
This is 1 of 12901 approved meteorites (plus 11 unapproved names) classified as L6. Search for specimens in the Smithsonian Institution collection (U.S.): Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 31, Moscow (1964)
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L5
Country
Year found
2000
Mass
450 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 14.4g
This is 1 of 8841 approved meteorites (plus 5 unapproved names) classified as L5. Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 84, MAPS 35, A199-A225 (2000)
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L4/5
Country
Year found
2001
Mass
2.52 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 11.4g
This is 1 of 82 approved meteorites (plus 1 unapproved name) classified as L4/5. Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 87, MAPS 38, A189-A248 (2003)
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L5
Country
Year found
2002
Mass
135.2 g
[Museum Collection]
(1) 11.8g
This is 1 of 8841 approved meteorites (plus 5 unapproved names) classified as L5. Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 87, MAPS 38, A189-A248 (2003)
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L6
Country
Year found
1993
Mass
36.9 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 10.5g
This is 1 of 12671 approved meteorites (plus 11 unapproved names) classified as L6. Search for this meteorite in the Natural History Museum collection (U.K.): Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 84, MAPS 35, A199-A225 (2000)
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L6
Country
Year found
1910
Mass
17 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 12.50g
This is 1 of 12396 approved meteorites (plus 8 unapproved names) classified as L6. 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
This is 1 of 8937 approved meteorites (plus 5 unapproved names) classified as L5. Search for specimens in the Smithsonian Institution collection (U.S.): Search for this meteorite in the Natural History Museum collection (U.K.):
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L5
Country
Year found
1968
Mass
1.23 t
[Museum Collection]
(1) 157.6g (2) 57g
This is 1 of 8638 approved meteorites (plus 4 unapproved names) classified as L5. Search for specimens in the Smithsonian Institution collection (U.S.): Search for this meteorite in the Natural History Museum collection (U.K.): Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 59, Meteoritics 16, 193-199 (1981)
Name
*click on the Name for more information
Structure Class
Ordinary chondrites
Chemical Class
L6
Country
Year found
2019
Mass
50 kg
[Museum Collection]
(1) 2.11kg
BONHAMS Auction 18-28 May 2021 Lot#110
BONHAMS Auction 18-28 May 2021 Lot#110
History: A bright bolide accompanied by loud sonic booms flew across the province of Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, at 1:17 pm local time (18:17:10 UTC) on 1 February 2019. A long smoke trail was also observed. The residents thought a plane had crashed, as they heard explosions and then ground rumbling lasting 15 to 20 s. A meteorite shower fell on Vinales Valley, a national monument since 1978 and a UNESCO world heritage site. The area is covered by a forest and fields. The first and some of the largest stones were collected near the monument "Mural of Prehistory" by artist Leovigildo Gonzalez Morillo. Others were discovered in and around Viñales and throughout the Viñales Valley. Some of the meteorite individuals penetrated the ground, one of them broke through an asphalt road, and many were recovered from rooftops. Physical characteristics: Hundreds of individual samples were collected by the local residents. The stones are covered by black fusion crust with reddish smears of a laterite clay. The substance of the meteorite of light gray color can be seen in small areas of the broken crust. The masses of stones are in a range 2 to 1100 g. In total, about 50-100 kg of the meteorite were collected. Petrography: The interior is light-colored; silicates are transected by dark, pseudotachylite-like shock veins. The rock is highly recrystallized; chondrule margins are difficult to discern. Recognizable chondrule types include POP, PO and BO, ranging up to ~1 mm in diameter. The meteorite samples contain the several vol% of black inclusions of melt rock. Metal grains range in size up to about 700 µm. The rock exhibits moderate silicate darkening. Chromite grains are moderately to extensively fractured. Some troilite grains and some kamacite grains are polycrystalline. A few kamacite grains contain small rounded grains of troilite within them. Metallic Cu was not observed. There are several small chromite-plagioclase assemblages and some olivine grains contain small chromite veinlets. The shock veins range to more than 1 cm in length and are typically 20 µm to 150 µm wide. The veins contain major silicate and small blebs of metallic Fe-Ni, and to a lesser extent, troilite; these opaque blebs are typically 1-3 µm in diameter. Also present in the veins are cellular metal-troilite veinlets 10-30 µm in length. Elongated aggregates of chromite occur alongside portions of some shock veins. Slabs of Viñales show intersecting dark shock veins, anastomosing veins, and a few quasi-circular melt concentrations where veins intersect. Coarse metal grains are heterogeneously distributed in some samples – some regions of these samples have abundant coarse metal; other regions have none. Near the dark fusion crust, numerous thin veinlets of troilite surround and penetrate fractures within silicate grains. Magnetic susceptibility (J. Gattacceca, CEREGE): log χ (× 10-9 m3/kg) = 4.93 measured on a 18 g sample. Geochemistry: Mineral compositions and geochemistry: (Borisovsky S. E., IGEM; A. Rubin, UCLA and L. Garvie, ASU) Olivine, Fa24.7±0.3 (N=15, IGEM), Fa24.6±0.4 (n=23, UCLA); low-Ca pyroxene, Fs21.0±0.4Wo1.5±0.3 (N=21, UCLA), Fs20.2±0.3Wo1.6±0.2 (N=15, IGEM); other minerals characterized by UCLA and ASU include diopside (Fs8.1±0.1Wo44.8±0.6; n=5), plagioclase (which has an average size of ~80 µm; Ab90.0±0.5Or1.8±1.2; n=14), chromite, kamacite (6.6±0.6 wt.% Ni; 0.89±0.12 wt.% Co), troilite (containing 0.7-0.42 wt.% Ni), taenite, and accessory tetrataenite, merrillite and chlorapatite. Oxygen isotopes (K. Ziegler, UNM): δ18O=4.38, 4.55, 4.69; δ17O=3.39, 3.50, 3.57; Δ17O=1.08, 1.09, 1.09 (all ‰). Classification: (Dr. C. Efrén Jaimez Salgado; IGA, Havana, Cuba; C. A. Lorenz, Vernad.) Ordinary chondrite (L6), Weathering grade is W0, Shock stage is S3 (Vernad) or S4 (UCLA). Specimens: The individual sample of 148 g and one transparent-polished section are deposited in Vernad; 22 g, UCLA; 18 g, CEREGE; 8 individual samples of total mass 2.31 kg are on deposit in Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy (IGA), Havana, Cuba. Large specimen masses are also held by John Higgins, MFarmer, and DPitt.