[meteorite-list] Megatherium hit by a meteorite ?

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Nov 3 12:21:57 2006
Message-ID: <DIIE.00000020000010B5_at_paulinet.de>

Hello List, salut Confr?re Pierre-Marie,

Do you know of which meteorite it's about or where I could get more information?

That's the Lujan meteorite:

1. Catalogue of Meteorites:
A piece of about 50g was found 6 m deep in Quaternary formations below the remains
of a megatherium, M. Kantor, Rev. Mus. La Plata, 1920, 25, p.117. A thoroughly oxidised
iron, mainly limonite. Very little preserved. Coordinates given as 34? 33' S., 059? 08' W, and
date of find as 1892, L.M. Villar, Cienc. Investig., 1968, 24, p.302, but it must have been
found before that year.

2. Vagn Buchwald:

BUCHWALD, V.F. (1975) Handbook of Iron Meteorites, Volume 2, p.790:

Lujan, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Approximately 34? 40' S, 059? 22' W

A piece of about 50 grams was found six meters deep in Quaternary formations below remains
of a megatherium* (Kantor 1921; Radice 1959). It has been listed as a mesosiderite (?) by Hey
(1966), but his classification is doubtful.
The 33 g specimen in the La Plata Museum measures 4.5 x 3 x 2.5 cm and is an iron thoroughly
oxidized to limonite. The specific gravity is approximately 4.5, and the specimen is almost nonmagnetic.
In the author's opinion the Lujan material is an entirely corroded octahedrite rather than a mesosiderite.
A close study of a modern polished section might help to solve the question, since it might be possible
to identify remnants of any octahedral structure and perhaps even find some untransformed schreibersite
or troilite.

3. Meteorite Magazine:

GIANFRANCO M. (1999) The "fossil" meteorite of
Lujan (M! Nov. 1999, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 35):

Fe2O3 = 83.16%
FeO = 0.26%
NiO = 3.45%
Al2O3 = 0.80%
CaO = 0.54%
MnO = 0.21%
SiO2 = 1.72%
H2O = 10.47%

Cheers, salut,

Bernd

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Received on Fri 03 Nov 2006 12:19:21 PM PST