Benthullen (meteorite)
Coordinates: 53 ° 3 ′ 0 ″ N , 8 ° 6 ′ 0 ″ E
 
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Situation in Germany |
The Benthullen meteorite is the second largest stone meteorite that has been found in Germany so far.
classification
It is a 4.56 billion year old class L 6 chondrite weighing 17.25 kg, which was found in Benthullen in the municipality of Wardenburg in the Oldenburger Land in Lower Saxony. Although the meteorite contains finely divided iron , which " rusts " after a very short time in our climate zones and causes a meteorite to disintegrate relatively quickly, it is not weathered and sometimes has a melted crust from its flight through the atmosphere . This is due to the fact that it was protected from oxidation of its metallic components when it was found on the floor of a raised bog. Argon investigations have shown that Benthullen has been on Earth for less than 120 years.
The Benthullen meteorite is not identical to the Oldenburg meteorite , which fell on September 10, 1930 in at least two large fragments approx. 20 km south of Oldenburg (Oldb) near the villages of Bissel (municipality of Großenkneten ) and Beverbruch (municipality of Garrel ).
origin
Like all L- chondrites , it probably comes from the asteroid Eros when it collided with another asteroid perhaps millions of 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.
Important objects rarely end up in a museum by chance, and so the first steps that ultimately brought the meteorite to the then State Museum of Natural History and Prehistory in Oldenburg also took them out of the museum: The geologist and then director Wolfgang Hartung undertook numerous site tours related to the exploration of the northwestern landscape of Lower Saxony.
During one of these excursions, Hartung met a Benthullen man in Benthullen who told him about a stone that his neighbor had found. This was big and heavy and could not be broken. Hartung mentions in his newspaper report in the Nordwest-Zeitung of June 4, 1949 that the farmer's attention was drawn to a trail while cutting peat that had completely penetrated the layers of the bog. Hartung writes: "I immediately suspected a meteor, I went straight to the farmer, and I managed to discover the strange stone that had been found a year ago and had since been thrown on a pile of stones at the house." The experienced geologist immediately recognized the extraterrestrial origin of the stone, the size of which he stated as 26 × 19 × 13 cm and a weight of 17.25 kg. In a letter from 1986, Hartung mentions the date of his discovery “on one of the last days of May 1949”. This means that the date of identification is relatively clear, in contrast to the time the celestial body was found at its earthly landing station. The information varies between 1944 and 1948 for the various respondents.
At 17.25 kg it is the second largest stone meteorite in Germany.
