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SANTA VITÓRIA DO PALMAR
Stony
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DESCRIPTION:
CHONDRITE
ORDINARY
H-L-LL
L
-
3
S4
W2
BRAZIL - RS
2003
Unequilibrated Ordinary Chondrite L3, with Shock Stage S4 and Weathering W2.
PETROGRAPHY:
The meteorite is a non-brecciated chondrite with unequilibrated olivine and pyroxene, with FeNi metallic phase. The chondrules are well defined and of great variation in the types of internal texture, including the porphyritic and barred olivine and pyroxene, such as BO, BP, PO, POP and PP.
GEOCHEMISTRY:
Olivine (Fa0.5–35.2). Pyroxene (Fs0.5–31.6).
CLASSIFICATION:
Unequilibrated Ordinary Chondrite L3, with Shock Stage S4 and Weathering W2.
CLASSIFIERS:
A. Greshake, MNB.
HISTORY:
A mass of 34 kg was found on March 25 or 26, 2003 by Roberto Maciel when he was looking for indigenous arrowheads in the dunes of the Holocene, on the shore of Lagoa Mirim. The large black stone, remarkable and presenting many distinct depressions (regmagites), the characteristics that made him suspect the meteoritic nature of the mass. Maciel continued his research the following week and he found two others weighing less than 4.34 kg and 1.57 kg. A few years earlier on June 25, 1997 (7:00 am) a bright bolide accompanied by a strong series of thunder, leaving a trail of black smoke was seen by many witnesses on the Brazil-Uruguay border. The next day, Zero Hora, a Porto Alegre newspaper, published that the title "Bright object intrigues residents of two cities". It seemed that the bolide's trajectory came from the north along the edge of Lagon Mirim and towards the direction of Chui, but with the probable impact zone between Santa Vitória do Palmar and the north of Chui. Many witnesses agreed that the object fell in an area called "Chácara dos Pinhais". The search for the meteorite was made on the Brazilian side by the civil police officer, Luiz Cavalheiro, in the Santa Vitória do Palmar area, which was done in just one day without a result. After a consultation sent to the Santa Maria air base, which revealed that his radar did not register any object, the search was concluded. The stones found by Maciel did not cause much interest from the rural community, which was so interested in the event that occurred a few years earlier. The only exception was José Maria Pereira Monzon, the curator of the local Museum who was interested, as soon as he became aware of the discovery and managed to acquire the two smallest fragments for the Municipal Museum Cel. Tancredo F. de Melle Brasil. He also performed the first documentation on the location and circumstances of the finding. It was thanks to Monzon that both masses were preserved. Unfortunately, the main mass was diverted by an alleged "professor at the University of Rio Grande do Sul" who took it for studies never carried out. Maciel died and no one remembers the professor's name and not even the University, so it is not known where the meteorite is now. A new mass of 10.45 kg was found by Laurato Correa, a local fossil hunter on February 14, 2004, when prospecting for fossils recognized the regmaglites and similar to the meteorite found by Maciel. From this mass a sample was sent to Germany by Mr. Correa and the meteorite was analysed by Dr.Angar Gresshake and presented to the Nomorlature Committee (NomCom) of the Meteoritical Society and published in Meteoritical Bulletin No. 90. Description obtained in the documents of National Museum.
All information that does not have a specific source was extracted from the Meteoritical Bulletin Database.
All images are copyrighted.
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