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Met Name

Met Type

Thin Sections

908 grams.   H

TKW 4.86 kg. Observed fall 25 February 1961, Djermaia, Chad, Africa.

 

jnmczurich writes:

The only witnessed fall (Feb 25, 1961) from Chad. It is a gas-rich regolith breccia, H chondrite.

Officially reported was the fall and the recovery of two stones (about 1 kg plus 2947g = tkw 3.95 kg), which is what the MetBul shows.

In 2005 there was an ebay auction titled a "meteorite from Chad". The ebay auction was executed by the nephew of a deceased old french lady who observed the fall of the Djermaia meteorites in Chad at night time in February 1961. The nephew wrote by e-mail later on that he remembered he was told by his aunt that she started to search for the fallen meteorites one or two days after the fall happened. The french lady succeeded in finding a fully crusted black and fresh looking individual stone of 908g. The found stone was never reported to scientists during the lifetime of the old french lady.

The ebay auction ended at a reasonable price and only some few months later the uncut meteorite from Chad was offered to me in exchange for other meteorites. I tell the truth, it was a fantastic day when I was able to trade for the 908g stone of Djermaia. After cutting an end section (about 45-50g, not exactly recorded, sorry…) and two full slices (15.3g and 19.9g) it was visually confirmed that the stone belongs to the Djermaia meteorite fell. The current weight of the former 908g mass is 809.7g. So, the total known weight of Djermaia increased to about 4.86 kg.

The Djermaia chondrite is full of angular and rounded clasts within a light and dark chondritic matrix. The 19.9g slice plus the end section were given to two Universities in Switzerland and USA. The 15.3g slice is still with the dealer friend who exchanged the Djermaia mass to me. To the best of my knowledge, Djermaia is an H3-5 chondrite.

The close-up views are 5.5 x 8 mm.