Hoba (meteorite)
| Hoba meteorite | |||
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National monument in Namibia 
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| Monument type | Natural monument | ||
| location | Otavi Mountains | ||
| Geographic coordinates : | 19 ° 35 '33.2 " S , 17 ° 56' 1.3" O | ||
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| Emergence | 190 to 410 million years | ||
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Recognized by the National Heritage Council |
March 15, 1955 and April 13, 1979 | ||
| Deprivation | |||
| Sponsorship | |||
| Website | NHC Namibia | ||
The Hoba meteorite ( English Hoba meteorite ; in the technical literature sometimes only referred to as Hoba ) is the largest meteorite discovered on earth to date . It is located on the site of the “Hoba” farm in the Otavibergen , about 20 kilometers west of Grootfontein in Namibia .
It has been a national monument since March 15, 1955 and April 13, 1979 .
description
The information about the weight vary between 50 and 60 tons . Its original dimensions were 2.70 meters × 2.70 meters × 0.90 meters. The iron meteorite struck Earth about 80,000 years ago and is still in its original position. Its estimated age is 190 to 410 million years.
The meteorite consists of approx. 82% iron , approx. 16% nickel and approx. 1% cobalt . It also contains a number of trace elements such as chromium , gallium , germanium , iridium , carbon , copper , sulfur and zinc . Meteorites with a nickel content of over 15% are known as ataxites .
discovery
No crater was left from the meteorite impact and the discovery happened by chance. As the owner of the land was plowing his field with an ox, he heard a metallic scraping noise before the plow suddenly stopped. Shortly afterwards, the meteorite was exposed and identified and described by the scientist Jacobus Hermanus Brits. The report was published in 1920 and can be seen in the Grootfontein Museum.
Another story
The owner in 1987, J. Engelbrecht, donated the area around the meteorite to the Council for Monuments . The area around the meteorite was then designed by the Council for Monuments and Rössing Uranium Limited .
The earth around the meteorite was excavated and a kind of amphitheater was created. Toilets, a well-developed path to the meteorite, a small cashier's house with a shop and barbecue areas were also laid out.
See also
literature
- Entry in the database of the Meteoritical Bulletin
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Jonathan Powell: Cosmic Debris What It Is and What We Can Do About It . Springer, 2017, ISBN 978-3-319-51016-3 , pp. 107 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ A b Ronnie McKenzie: Meteorites a southern African perspective . Penguin Random House South Africa, 2014, ISBN 978-1-77584-173-9 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Ralf Jaumann, Ulrich Köhler, Frank Sohl, Daniela Tirsch, Susanne Pieth: Expedition to foreign worlds 20 billion kilometers through the solar system . Springer-Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-662-54996-4 , pp. 152 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ RH McCorkell, EL FIREMAN, J. D'AMICO, SO THOMPSON: Radioactive Isotopes in Hoba West and Other Iron Meteorites. In: Meteoritics. 4, 1968, p. 113, doi : 10.1111 / j.1945-5100.1968.tb00378.x .
- ^ Margret Lehmann: Encounter with Africa travel experiences . novum publishing gmbh, 2011, ISBN 978-3-99003-329-6 , p. 87 ( limited preview in Google Book search).