Meteorite | Vaca Muerta | Mesosiderite | 1328g

Product detailed description

In 1861, a group of miners discovered a crater about two metres deep and ten metres wide near the town of Taltal in the Antofagasta region of northern Chile. They extracted an unusually large amount of ore from the bottom of the crater and hoped to find silver after processing it. This didn't happen, but a year later, Ignacy Domeyko, a Chilean geologist, discovered that the miners had stumbled upon something even more precious.

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 an impact site of about 12x2 km where they find more meteorites. In total, nearly four tonnes of material have been found to date, 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 stony-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.

Weight: 1,328 g
Location of discovery: Taltal, northern Chile
Composition: transitional type between iron and stone meteorites
Interesting fact: Meteorite known since 1862 but only ""rediscovered"" in the 1980s.