Meteorite | Vaca Muerta | Mesosiderite | 1328g

Product detailed description

In 1861, a group of miners discover a crater about two metres deep and ten metres wide near the town of Taltal in the Antofagasta region of northern Chile, from the bottom of which they extract an unusually large amount of ore. They hope to find silver after processing it. This is not to be, but a year later, Chilean geologist Ignacy Domeyko discovers that the miners have stumbled upon something even rarer.

The remains of a meteorite. Several pieces end up in the collections of local universities and the meteorite is named after the former name of a nearby mine - Vaca Muerta, which means "dead cow" in Spanish. But for the next century, the meteorite and its discovery site will be forgotten. It is not until 1985 that the Martinez brothers identify a fall field of about 12 x 2 km and find more meteorites in it. In total, nearly four tonnes of material are still present today, with an estimated original mass at atmospheric entry of up to six tonnes. The terrestrial age of the meteorite is estimated at 240,000 years.

This meteorite belongs to the rare group of mesosiderites, which are rock-iron meteorites formed by the collision of two large celestial bodies. Vaca Muerta is one of the largest meteorites yet found from this not-so-large group.