achondrite

Nakhla

Nakhla is a martian achondrite that fell June 28th, 1911, in Al Buhayrah, Egypt. At the time of the fall, a newspaper article was published claiming the meteorite had hit a dog on entry.  This was never proven, but did inspire a Peanuts cartoon strip, in which Linus and Charlie Brown discuss the meteorite striking…

Norton County

Norton County fell February 18th of 1948, on the Kansas/Nebraska border. Norton County is a rare type of meteorite called an aubrite, which is an enstatite achondrite. Aubrites are dominated by enstatite – a pyroxene mineral containing Mg, Si, and O. This mineral is white in Norton County, as opposed to the more normal green…

Camel Donga

Camel Donga is an achondrite found on the Nullarbor Plain of Western Australia in 1984.  The word “donga” is a term for “campsite” in Australia. Camel Donga is a eucrite (monomict breccia), part of the HED group of meteorites (Howardites-Eucrites-Diogenites).  These meteorites are believed to originate from the cooling of magma on the surface of…

Talampaya

Talampaya is an achondrite that fell in Argentina, in 1995. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB 83):  Stories circulating among meteorite dealers tell of a meteorite that fell in Argentina, producing a sonic boom that scared a mountain climber. The climber eventually found the meteorite somewhere down range. The location of the fall may have…

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube