Tinajdad (H5) Fall, 9 September 2014, Morocco official in Meteoritical Bulletin Database

Centre-South, Morocco

Fell: 2014 Sept 9

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H5)

History: On Tuesday, 9 Sept 2014, around 7:30 pm local time, a fireball was seen and heard in the southern part of Morocco by many people. The observation was quickly reported (during the 77th Meteoritical Society meeting in Casablanca) and hunters began searching in the field. One meteorite weighing 1860 g (broken into 1 big piece and a few small ones) was found the day after the fall by Aicha, the daughter of a nomad named Zaid, about 100 m from their tent. The family was in the tent at sunset and heard a noise like thunder and one boom. In the morning, they tried to locate whatever produced the noise and Aicha found a black rock broken into several pieces that was not there the day before. She collected the rock and gave it to her father. After a few days, he showed it to people from Goulmima during the weekly souk (market), who recognized it as a meteorite. The fall occurred about 16 km WNW of the city of Tinajdad on a plateau called Amirdoul N-Dar Ighourane close to a track. H. Chennaoui-Aoudjehane, M. Aoudjehane, and Y. Oulmaleh organized a field party on 20 September to determine the coordinates of the fall. The testimonies of many eyewitnesses from Alnif, Tineghir, Tinajdad, Todra Gorges, Azag N-Ouchchan and other villages point to a yellow colored, bright object moving horizontally for about 2 s and a sound like thunder.

Physical characteristics: One meteorite in pieces of 1035, 37 and 81 g, plus many small pieces. Very fresh, W0. Mostly covered by a black matte fusion crust and with a gray interior. The silicate grains are homogeneous in size, very few chondrules are detectable. The metal and sulphide grains are very small (H. Chennaoui-Aoudjehane). Magnetic susceptibility (P. Rochette, CEREGE): log χ = 5.29 (χ in 10-9 m3/kg).

Petrography: Abundant olivine and orthopyroxene. Textural distribution of metal and troilite indicates type 5, and the fine interstitial plagioclase is consistent with this. Rare relict barred olivine chondrules. Minor minerals include chromite, phosphates and tetrataenite (B. Zanda and R. Hewins, MNHNP).

Geochemistry: (R. Hewins, MNHNP). Olivine Fa19.5±0.4, n=5; orthopyroxene, En81.6±0.2Fs16.9±0.1Wo1.5±0.1, n=4; plagioclase, An10-25Ab72-84Or3-16, n=4; Chromite, Sp13Cr80Usp6Mgt1; metal, kamacite with 6.8±0.3% Ni and taenite with 16-30% Ni plus tetrataenite. Phosphates are merrillite and chlorapatite.

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H5), W0.

Specimens: 19.0 g FSAC, 0.9 g MNHNP, 0.5 g CEREGE