1.098 grams. Eucrite-mmict
TKW 25 kg. Fall not observed. Found January 1984, near Camel Donga, on the Nullarbor Plain, Western Australia, Australia.
   
Cosimo writes:
A two-day trip in July 1985 by Brian Mason and W. H. Cleverly to the site of a January 1984 find resulted in 11 additional stones within a kilometer of each other providing a total recovered mass of 2.92 kilograms. The stones were often covered by black fusion crusts, but weathering is quite evident in these and other subsequently recovered stones. The meteorite is composed almost entirely of pyroxene and plagioclase (~3:2 ratio) as angular grains and in matrix. The matrix which also contains quite minor amounts of iron, troilite, ilmenite, and various silica polymorphs. Gabbroic and doleritic clasts are present as well. Pyroxene is mildly Fe-rich; plagioclase is mostly bytownite; iron (Ni-free) accounts for ~2% of the stone. Small amounts of zircon and baddeleyite are also present. These refractory minerals have been especially helpful in leading to additional refinements in establishing a chronology for Camel Donga's journey from its formation on a large, differentiated meteorite (presumably Vesta) until its eventual landfall. Recent iterations of isotopic studies have suggested that almost all of Camel Donga's constituents were formed ~4.56 billion years ago — and that a particular violent impact event ~3.7 billion years ago may represent the ejection of Camel Donga. |