NO METEORITE FALL at ~14:57:17 UTC (~11:57:17 am BRT) on 2 August 2025 close to the municipality of Tabuleiro, Zona da Mata region, Minas Gerais, Brazil

06/08/2025 12:28 · by karmaka · in staged / falsified 'meteorite' falls or finds

Last update: 10 August 2025 (09:00 CEST)

On 8 August 2025 BRT laboratory tests at UFJF and Raman spectroscopy at the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca (Cefet/RJ) confirmed that all of the found rocks of the alleged meteorite fall are of terrestrial origin (possibly limestone) and thus no enstatite meteorites, as initially supposed. This raises the question whether this whole impact event was staged to create some kind of media attention. The unusual way the plank is initially removed from the corral roof, almost as if somehow pulled up at the edge of the roof, and the delayed ‘impact sound’ as well as the abrupt camera movement might confirm this conclusion. Zucolotto nevertheless doesn’t completely rule out a meteorite fall: “Por ser que tenha sido um meteorito e que esteja por lá. Mas só com o tempo mesmo ou nunca será achado.” (“It’s possible it was a meteorite and it’s there. But it’ll only be found with time, or it will never be found.”)

Maria Elizabeth Zucolotto confirming that the found rocks are of terrestral origin. Video: Globo (8 August 2025 BRT)

Allegedly, at around ~14:50 UTC (~11:50 am BRT) on 2 August 2025 meteorite fell on the roof of a cow corral of an isolated farm close to the municipality of Tabuleiro, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Electrical engineer Ramires Lopes (27), the niece of the farm owner, reports that her aunt was home alone at the time of the fall. She reportedly was inside the house to make lunch when she heard really loud bang coming from outside. When she went out, she found the frightened chickens, horses and cows and thick dust in the air near the corral. On the ground she could see the damaged concrete and the broken corral roof. She was very scared at the time. The aunt found four objects near the corral: one larger, darker and burned-looking one, and three smaller ones. According to the finder the stones were reportedly still ‘lukewarm’ when touched first. She took them into the house and put them on a table. At least one fragment has been exposed to a household magnet, which reportedly did not attract. Later Ramires Lopez took the found objects. They were handed over to Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF) and were first analysed for their elements with a handheld Tracer XRF spectrometer by Maria Elizabeth Zucolotto on 6 August 2025. According to Zucolotto the dark object found is a burned bone fragment but some of the other three objects could, according to her, potentially be meteorites (enstatite chondrites or aubrites), since at least one contains nickel. Zucolotto also visited the reported fall site and found another nickel-containing fragment on the roof of the corral. More analyses of their elemental composition in a laboratory at UFJF and Cefet/RJ were performed because data by a handheld XRF device are in general not sufficient to confim the meteoritic nature of a rock. A terrestrial origin was most likely and was eventually confirmed on 8 August 2025 BRT. The aunt and family members of the farm prefer to remain anonymous. The alleged fall event was recorded by a security camera.

The burned bone fragment next to two terrestrial rock fragments. Image: Globo (6 August 2025)

One of the found rock fragments. Image: Jornal da band, (7 August 2025)

One of the found rock fragments. Image: Jornal da band, (7 August 2025)

XRF elemental percentage data. If these results are correct and the device was correctly and long enough applied (must be at least 60 to 120 seconds, not 50), we believe they seem to indicate a rather terrestrial origin of the stones, for instance because of the very high silicon, and thus SiO₂, percentage. [This evaluation was confirmed on 8 August 2025 (BRT) by Raman spectroscopy analysis at Cefet.] Image: Globo (6 August 2025)