[meteorite-list] Bassikounou meteorite fall

From: info at niger-meteorite-recon.de <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 21:40:14 +0200
Message-ID: <30113957.442831178653214875.JavaMail.servlet_at_kundenserver>

Dear list,

widely unnoticed by the meteoritic community on October 12, 2006 at 04:00 hrs a spectacular meteorite shower fell at the village of Bassikounou in southeast Mauretania. Meanwhile the petrographic and mineralogic analysis of the meteoritic material collected has been completed at the University of Bern, Switzerland. The new fall has been submitted by B. Hofmann to the NomCom of the Meteoritical Society.

Despite the fact that the event caused a considerable sensation in the Mauretanian media and public, only few details of this event came to light at present. This may partly be due to the fact that the media in the capital Nouakchott as well as the local mineral dealers were convinced until February 2007, that only a single mass fell at Bassikounou.

Due to the extreme remoteness of the fall area it took months until the stones that had been collected since the morning after the fall found their way to people who could value their importance. However no thorough attempts have been made so far, to investigate the circumstances of the fall.

With the aid of a local journalist, local authorities and experts from the European Fireball Network my colleague Matthias Baermann and I are currently trying to draw a picture of what exactly happened. We succeeded in collecting numerous photos from the strewnfield, eye witness reports as well as newspaper articles and press releases covering the event. Work on a catalogue of the meteoritic masses collected so far is under progress as well. We are positive to publish our results shortly before the Ensisheim Fair on June 15.

Including the six masses we were able to acquire we currently count a TKW of ~ 42kg. Two Bassikounou masses are pictured on our page at:

www.niger-meteorite-recon.de/en/meteoriten_verkauf.htm

Because we intend the Bassikounou catalogue to describe as much single masses as possible in detail we kindly offer those among you, that have purchased Bassikounou, to send us a factsheet of your masses including weight, number of surfaces, taxonomic description and special features as well as the name of the finder or seller. If we have your agreement we will include the name of the current owner in the catalogue.

Beside intelligence on the meteoritic individuals and fragments we are asking for further information on the event itself. Especially observations and descriptions of the fireball, sound phenomena and shock wave are welcome, any additional piece of information counts. Please indicate your sources in case of second hand information.

Thank you for supporting this endeavor

Svend Buhl

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Received on Tue 08 May 2007 03:40:14 PM PDT