Tamdakht meteorite

Tamdakht is an observed meteorite fall of 20 December 2008 22:37 local time clock north of the village of the same name in the province of Ouarzazate Tamdakht in Morocco, about 30 km northwest of the provincial capital of Ouarzazate.

Meteorite fall

The meteorite fall was initially perceived in the form of a blazing fireball, which was flying, seen from west to east in large parts of central Morocco and the High Atlas by hundreds of eyewitnesses. Witnesses near the crash area reported by thunder, shock wave and explosion noises. The Moroccan newspaper Al Masah quoted in its issue of December 27, 2008 eyewitness from the High Atlas near Ouazarzate who reported a trembling of the earth and provide daylight light phenomenon. First, there was speculation about an aircraft or rocket crashes in the local media, the latest with the first finds, however, continued the explanation of the phenomenon as a meteorite fall through.

Observations of meteor fragments

The Tamdakht meteorite has repeatedly broken during the atmospheric flight into smaller fragments that fell in a scattering ellipse of 16 km length in rugged mountain terrain in the foothills of the High Atlas. About two weeks after the case made ​​local Bedouins the first meteorite finds. Their via the measurement of short-lived radionuclides detected underground residence time ( terrestrial residence time) corresponded exactly to the date of the observed light and sound phenomena.

The majority of the recovered fragments was on coarse boulders and rock ledges broken on impact into countless fragments, so among other things, a 30 -kg fragment, which left an impact cavity with a diameter of 110 cm and 70 cm depth in the Oued Aachir. Few, completely covered with fusion crust individuals could be found. The majority of the completely preserved Tamdakht meteorite originates from the western end of the stray field near the village Anakhsa.

Tamdakht and other meteorite falls in Morocco

With a stray field length of at least 16 km and a width of at least 4.5 km is the meteor shower of Tamdakht the biggest ever meteorite fall in Morocco. By 2008, only four observed cases were registered in Morocco: Douar Mghila (1932 ), Oued el Hajar (1986 ), Bensour (2002) and Benguerir ( 2004). In all it was LL6 chondrites. With a fund volume of around 100 kg Tamdakht so far is undoubtedly also the largest Moroccan meteorite fall, which was observed in historical times.

On 26 February 2009, the final classification of the meteorite was published in the database of the Meteoritical Bulletin of the Meteoritical Society. Tamdakht is an ordinary chondrite (H5 ) with a shock stage S3 and weathering grade W0.