Oued el Kechbi (L4) registered as probable meteorite fall (Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, Morocco, ~2 pm UTC, 3 March 2023)

09/09/2023 13:37 · by karmaka · in L, ordinary chondrite, Oued el Kechbi, probable fall

Last update: 10 September 2023

Meteorites reportedly found in close spacial and temporal proximity to a humanly observed bolide event at about 2 p.m. (UTC) on 3 March 2023 above northern Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra in Morocco have been registered as ‘probable fall’ under the official name Oued el Kechbi (L4, S2). A “probable fall” has been defined by the Meteorite Nomenclature Committee (NomCom) as “a meteorite found to be a fall by the weight of the evidence, but there remains some degree of doubt. There were observations of an event considered likely to have produced meteorites, but there remains some doubt about whether the collected meteorite is related to the event, or about the nature of the event itself.”

According to the write-up in the Meteoritical Bulletin (provided by Zaid Oualguirah) the nomadic sheep herders Derija Bent Yahya, Abo bakr Aabidha, Brika weld Himdah and Elkhadir, who were all reportedly situated approximately 1 kilometre to the east of the reported fall site (27°43’25.3″N 12°06’40.3″W), observed a bolide travelling along a south-eastern to north-western trajectory above the southern Moroccan desert, about 42 kilometres south to southwest of Akhfennir in Morocco.

According to one of the eye-witnesses, Abo bakr Aabidha, the first meteorites were found by him and other residents from Akhefennir the following day, 4 March 2023. In the following weeks several additional specimens (at least about 4764 grams) were reportedly found by various individuals.