Discovery of a 25-cm asteroid clast in the giant Morokweng impact crater, South Africa

W. D. Maier (), M. A. G. Andreoli, I. McDonald, M. D. Higgins, A. J. Boyce, A. Shukolyukov, G. W. Lugmair, L. D. Ashwal, P. Gräser, E. M. Ripley and R. J. Hart
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W. D. Maier: Sciences de la Terre, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
M. A. G. Andreoli: South African Nuclear Energy Corporation
I. McDonald: School of Earth, Ocean & Planetary Sciences, Cardiff University
M. D. Higgins: Sciences de la Terre, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
A. J. Boyce: Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre
A. Shukolyukov: University of California
G. W. Lugmair: University of California
L. D. Ashwal: School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits
P. Gräser: University of Pretoria
E. M. Ripley: Indiana University
R. J. Hart: Ithemba LABS - Gauteng, Wits

Nature, 2006, vol. 441, issue 7090, 203-206

Abstract: Meteorites after the fall When a large meteorite falls to Earth, not much of it is left. It is normally completely melted or vaporized, the thinking goes, so the identification of fragments of impactors depends on the use of indirect chemical tracers. But with the discovery of a remarkably unaltered, boulder-sized piece of a meteorite in the Morokweng impact crater in South Africa, the thinking about meteorite survivability may have to change. A 25-cm fossil meteorite and several smaller fragments were found within the impact melt of the giant Morokweng crater. The meteorite is of an unusual composition that reveals unexpected replacement of metal by sulphides, probably in the interior of the parent asteroid. This suggests that the Morokweng impact event involved a type of asteroid not reflected in the known population that has reached Earth in recent times.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04751

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