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Tamdakht - New Moroccan Fall from December 2008

Tamdakht - New Moroccan Fall from December 2008

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Tamdakht is a brand new H5 chondrite fall from Morocco.  On December 20, 2008, a brilliant fireball was seen over the remote High Atlas mountains of Morocco.  A deafening explosion followed as the meteorite slammed into the mountainside.  This new witnessed fall has a virgin-grey matrix with metal flecks and is one of the freshest meteorites on the planet. 

This offer is for one to three small fragments selected from the same lot shown in the photo.  Some of these have crust.  The black centimeter cube is shown for scale and is not included.  Your purchase includes a labelled gemjar.

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Meteoritical Bulletin entry for Tamdakht -

Tamdakht                                              31°09.8’N, 7°00.9’W

Tamdakht, (Ouarzazate) Morocco

Fall: 20 December 2008, 22:37 hrs (local time; UT+00)

Ordinary chondrite (H5)

History (H. Chennaoui-Aoudjehane): On December 20th of 2008, witnesses from a number of locations in Morocco (Agadir, Marrakesh, Ouarzazate) observed a meteor with a W to E trajectory. According to the local newspaper, Al Massae (of December 27th), people from the high Atlas Mountains (between Marrakesh and Ouazazate) heard a sound and felt an aftershock. Due to the high relief in this mountain region, covered with snow at this time of the year, searching for the meteorite was a difficult task. The first reports on finding pieces of a meteorite came a couple of weeks later. The largest impact pit is located near Oued Aachir (1.10 m diameter and 70 cm depth, 31°09.8’N, 7°00.9’W), with a stone exceeding 30 kg and many small fragments. A second one is smaller, (about 20 cm diameter and 10 cm depth; 31°09.9’N 07°02.3’W) located 2 km W from the first one; the main mass from the second impact was probably about 500 g. Philippe Thomas gave UPVI the reference sample for study from a set of 2.65 kg stones found near Tamdakht.
Physical characteristics: Total weight is presently estimated to be 100 kg. Pieces recovered as of February 1st 2009 are 30 kg, 3 kg, 1.5 kg and 800 g. One major fragment of 1.7 kg and many small pieces from the same stone (ranging 500 to below 1 g) were also recovered. The largest fragment shows a nearly complete dull gray fusion crust, other pieces are 70% crusted to free of crust, often broken along preexisting fractures.
Petrography (Albert Jambon, Omar Boudouma, D. Badia UPVI and M. Denise, MNHNP): Abundant chondrules with visible but not well-delimited outlines. Chondrule size is 0.1 to 0.5 mm. Dominant olivine and orthopyroxene. Abundant chromite, rare clinopyroxene and ilmenite. Numerous pockets with chromite, plagioclase and phosphate (merrilite and Cl-apatite). Kamacite, with deformed Neumann bands, and taenite, twinned troilite. Copper. Mode: metal+troilite 10%.
Mineral compositions and geochemistry: log χ = 5.3. Olivine Fa18±0.5 Opx =En83 Fs16 Wo2. Minor calcic pyroxene. Plagioclase is Ab83-86 An5-15 Or7-2. Ca-Phosphate (merrillite and Cl-apatite). Chromite: Cr# =82. Metal: kamacite with 5% Ni and taenite with 36-47% Ni. Oxygen isotopes (J. Gattacecca CEREGE): δ17O = 3.26 ‰, δ18O = 5.01 ‰, and ∆17O = 0.66‰.
Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H5), S3, W0.
Type specimens: A mass of 21 g and one polished section are on deposit at UPVI. 1 piece of 15.8 g provided by L. Labenne and small fragments totaling 20 g at UHAC. Svend Buhl 2 kg; Meteoritica (PThomas) 2.65 kg; M. Zeroual 20 kg, main mass anonymous finder.




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