Chinga (meteorite)
The Chinga meteorite is an iron meteorite , fragments of which were first found by gold prospectors in 1913 in the Chinga River in the Siberian Tannu Tuva region . So far 250 fragments with a total weight of around 350 kg have been collected from several expeditions.
No clearly delimited impact crater could be found at the site. The meteorite probably burst 10,000 to 20,000 years ago when it entered the earth's atmosphere , with the fragments falling on glacial ice . The fall date was estimated from geological surveys of the river valley and the depth of meteorite fragments in the deposits.
The Chinga meteorite comes from the asteroid belt and is assigned to the class of ataxites . These are rare meteorites with a high nickel content.
Chemical composition: 83% iron ; 16.4% nickel ; 0.181 ppm gallium ; 0.082 ppm germanium ; 3.6 ppm iridium .
In 2012, it was published that chemical testing of a Buddhist statue revealed that it was made from the metal of chinga - a discovery so far unique. Assumptions that the statue was brought to Germany by a German SS expedition from Tibet in 1939 and that it is several thousand years old are doubted by experts. Another assumption is that this statue was made by Nikolaus Roerich in the early 20th century.
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Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Elmar Buchner, Martin Schmieder, Gero Kurat, Franz Brandstätter, Utz Kramar, Theo Ntaflos, Jörg Kröchert: Buddha from space-An ancient object of art made of a Chinga iron meteorite fragment . In: Meteoritics & Planetary Science . 47, No. 9, September 1, 2012, pp. 1491–1501. bibcode : 2012M & PS..tmp..203B . doi : 10.1111 / j.1945-5100.2012.01409.x .
- ^ Archeology deity from space . Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 28, 2012.
- ↑ Achim Bayer: The Lama Wearing Trousers: Notes on an Iron Statue in a German Private Collection (PDF; 1.8 MB). Center for Buddhist Studies, Hamburg 2012 (English)
- ↑ Nina Weber: At the beard of the Nazi Buddha . Spiegel Online, October 22, 2012.
- ↑ Anna Sawerthal: New theory on the "Buddha from space " . In: derStandard.at . April 26, 2018 ( derstandard.at [accessed on May 20, 2019]).