Tamdakht (meteorite)

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Stone meteorite weighing 2 kg from the meteorite fall on December 20, 2008 near Tamdakht in Morocco
208 g heavy Tamdakht meteorite fragment with clear impact marks

Tamdakht is an observed meteorite fall from December 20, 2008, 10:37 pm local time north of the town of the same name Tamdakht in the province of Ouarzazate in Morocco , about 30 km northwest of the provincial capital Ouarzazate .

Meteorite fall

The meteorite fall was initially perceived in the form of a glistening ball of fire, which, flying from west to east, was seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses in large parts of central Morocco and the High Atlas . Witnesses near the crash area reported rumbling thunder, shock waves and explosion noises. The Moroccan newspaper Al Masah quoted in its edition of December 27, 2008 eyewitnesses from the High Atlas near Ouazarzate, who reported that the earth was trembling and the light was as bright as day. At first there was speculation in the local media about an airplane or rocket crash, but at the latest with the first discoveries, the explanation of the phenomenon as a meteorite fall prevailed.

Finds of meteorite fragments

During the flight in the atmosphere, the Tamdakht meteorite disintegrated into smaller fragments, which fell in a scattered ellipse about 16 km long in impassable mountainous terrain in the foothills of the High Atlas. About two weeks after the fall, native Bedouins made the first meteorite finds. Their terrestrial residence time, determined by measuring the short-lived radionuclides , corresponded exactly to the date of the observed light and sound phenomena.

Most of the recovered meteorites had broken into countless fragments when they hit coarse rubble and rocky outcrops, including a 30 kg fragment that left an impact basin in the Oued Aachir with a diameter of 110 cm and 70 cm deep. Only a few individuals completely covered with enamel crust could be found. The majority of the fully preserved Tamdakht meteorites come from the western end of the strewn field near the village of Anakhsa.

Tamdakht and other meteorite falls in Morocco

With a stray field length of at least 16 km and a width of at least 4.5 km, the Tamdakht meteor shower is the most important meteorite fall in Morocco to date. Up to 2008 only four observed cases were registered in Morocco: Douar Mghila (1932), Oued el Hadjar (1986), Bensour (2002) and Benguerir (2004). All of them were LL6 chondrites . With a find amount of around 100 kg so far, Tamdakht is undoubtedly the largest Moroccan meteorite fall that has been observed in historical times.

On February 26, 2009, the final classification of the meteorite was published in the database of the Meteoritical Bulletin of the Meteoritical Society . Tamdakht is a common chondrite (H5) with a shock degree of S3 and a weathering degree of W0.

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