Oldenburg (meteorite)
The meteorite Oldenburg (official name Oldenburg (1930) , alias Bissel , alias Beverbruch ) was a stone meteorite with a mass of 16.57 kg, which on September 10, 1930 at 2:15 p.m. in at least two large fragments near the villages of Bissel ( Grossenkneten municipality , 4.84 kg), 23 km south of Oldenburg ( Lower Saxony ) and Beverbruch ( Garrel municipality , 11.73 kg) and 4.4 km northwest of Bissel fell from the sky after it fell about 4 km above the village Döhlen, municipality of Großenkneten, broke up into at least two main parts.
There is a 4.56 billion years old chondrite class L6 ( L ow-metal, iron content: 21.5% by weight). It is not identical to the Benthullen meteorite , which was also found near Oldenburg in 1951 , because although it has the same L-class, it is poor in chondrules compared to the Oldenburg meteorite .
origin
Like all L-chondrites, Oldenburg (1930) probably originated from the asteroid Eros and was formed when it collided with another asteroid, presumably several million years ago, and fragments left the asteroid belt on an eccentric orbit, at some point crossed the earth's orbit and crashed as meteorites. The reflection spectra of this asteroid agree pretty much with those of the L and LL chondrites.
Impact and find
On September 10, 1930 at 2:15 p.m., the population south of Oldenburg was startled by a loud bang followed by a loud whistling and whistling sound and a second bang.
At this point in time the shepherd Clemens Bley was with his sheep on the heath near Beverbruch and the farmer Johann Schnieders from Halenhorst on his bike on the way to Bissel. Both started up, startled, when they heard a violent roar and rustling nearby. They had the feeling that something was flying "close above their heads" and then penetrating the ground in an indirect or immediate vicinity.
The shepherd Bley was only 19 m from the point of impact, the farmer a little further. Schnieders dug into the funnel together with the farmer's son Ernst Gotelüschen, who lived nearby, and found a mostly black stone, 24 cm long and 12.5 cm wide and weighing 4.84 kg at a depth of 35 cm. Bley lifted a similar stone weighing 11.73 kg from a hole about 50 cm deep. Both pieces had black enamel crust and fresh, light gray fracture surfaces that fit together exactly.
The meteorite can only have broken apart in the lower atmosphere, otherwise the fracture surfaces would also have a black melting crust. After measurements of the Bissel crater hole and the evaluation of the falling noises, because the two finders could only have orientated themselves with them, the meteorite should have hit the ground about 53 ° from the east, while the part of Beverbruch caused a vertical crater. The meteorite is said to have broken into two main parts about 4,100 m above the village of Döhlen, which caused the second bang.
In addition to the two finders, other eyewitnesses of the meteorite fall were also found in the area, for example in Lohne (Oldenburg) , about 7 km SSW from Vechta , where a striking light phenomenon was observed exactly at that time. It was neglected to interview the eye and ear witnesses immediately after the case became known. This would have made the trajectory of the meteorite more reliable. A third fragment is suspected, but it was never found.
Another inaccuracy lies in the naming. Usually meteorites are named after the place where they were found; H. to the place that is in the immediate vicinity. Both stones were named after Oldenburg, which is well over 20 km to the north.
Konrad Meyer (1885–1965), who was the main village school teacher from Nikolausdorf at the time, bought both parts of the meteorite from the shepherd Bley and the farmer Schnieders and handed both halves over to the museum village of Cloppenburg : the smaller “Bissel” fragment for sale and the larger “Beverbruch “Part as a permanent loan . According to a report by the Münsterländische Tageszeitung on August 22, 2012, the “Bissel” fragment has disappeared from the museum village and, despite being searched, can no longer be found. The fragment was loaned to the Oldenburg State Museum for an exhibition in 2000/2001. According to the museum village of Cloppenburg, the stone should not have returned from there. However, the Oldenburg State Museum contradicts this. The fragment is therefore lost.
In 1995 the larger piece of meteorite "Beverbruch" was offered for sale by Meyer's daughter and heiress, Dorothea Meyer, and is now in private hands.
literature
- Buttel-Reepen: The Oldenburg meteorite fall from September 10, 1930. In: Oldenburger Jahrbuch. Volume 1930.
- Monica M. Grady: Catalog of Meteorites. 5th edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 978-0-521-66303-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Meteoritical Bulletin Database: Oldenburg (1930)
- ↑ Cf. Grady 2000, p. 99 and 381: Vmtl. after Paul Ramdohr: The opaque minerals in stony meteorites. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1973, ISBN 0444410678 .
- ↑ Dirk Faß: Sager Heide I. A local reader. Publisher Florian Isensee GmbH, Oldenburg 1995.
- ↑ [1]