Santa Vitoria do Palmar (meteorite)
Santa Vitoria do Palmar is the 53rd meteorite discovery from Brazil .
The find was preceded by a spectacular fireball phenomenon on June 25, 1997 over the cities of Santa Vitória do Palmar in the extreme southeast of Brazil and Chuy in northeast Uruguay . Although searches began on both sides of the borders immediately after the event, no meteorite was initially found. It was not until six years later in March 2003 that Roberto Maciel discovered by chance a 34 kg mass on the banks of the Laguna Merín while searching for Indian arrowheads . Further findings followed in 2004, but without samples reaching an institute that confirmed the findings as a meteorite. It wasn't until the end of 2005 that the German meteorite scientist Dr. Svend Buhl to establish contact with the finders and send samples to the Berlin Natural History Museum. This confirmed that the finds were meteorites and carried out the mineralogical-petrographic analysis and the classification.
Santa Vitoria do Palmar is an olivine-hypersthene chondrite of type L3 with a shock degree S3 / 4 and a weathering degree of W2. The completely unequilibrated meteorite consists almost entirely of tightly packed chondrules that have almost all known crystallization patterns. While large parts of the meteorite have been darkened by a strong shock event, a few sections also show unchanged light parts.
Since a period of six years had elapsed between the fireball sighting and the meteorite finds, it was no longer possible to clearly clarify whether the masses found can be clearly assigned to the observed event. According to the protocol, the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society therefore decided to classify Santa Vitoria do Palmar as a find and not an observed case.
Santa Vitoria do Palmar has since been officially included in the data base of the Meteoritical Bulletin and published in Meteoritical Bulletin No. 91/2007.
literature
- Meteoritical Society: Meteoritical Bulletin, no.91, MAPS 42 (2007)