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On the Trail of the World's Great Meteorites
Musee del Meteorito
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Photos July 6 2019
Monturaqui Crater
Monturaqui Crater was discovered in 1962 by Chilean geologist Joaquin Sanchez Rojas. The crater is the largest in Chile with a diameter of 380 metres. It is believed to have been created by a meteorite 13 metres wide hitting the ground at 18km/sec. It left behind impactites composed of a mixture of local vaporized rock which then solidified, and small nickel-iron nodules from the meteorite.
Vaca Muerta
Atacama Desert, Chile - 1861.
Mesosiderite.
Vaca Muerta (Spanish for Dead Cow), was named for a nearby dry riverbed. It did not injure a bovine ! It is an example of a mesosiderite, a very rare stoney-iron meteorite. Rich in metallic iron-nickel, it may have formed from the collision of a metal-rich asteroid core fragment with a rocky-surfaced asteroid. Pieces of the debris ended up in the Atacama Desert.
The strewnfield wsas discovered in the 19th century near Taltal, Chile by mining ore prospectors who initially mistook it for silver. Multiple masses totalling 3.8 tons have been found.
Photo Nov 2018 - Old Vaca Muerta excavation pit in the Atacama Desert.
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