Carancas Meteorite

History of the Carancas meteorite: This meteorite fall in Puno District, Desaguadero, Peru on 15 September, 2007 at 11:45 am. A fireball brighter than the noontime sun blotted out the sky and rapidly entered the atmosphere over Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. The fireball moved over the border and into Peru where it impacted less than two miles from the border. When the meteorite impacted, it shook the earth hard enough to show up on seismic and created a crater more than 40 feet in diameter and 10 feet deep. Windows were broken by the shock wave in the town of Desaguadero and the village of Carancas where the meteorite impcted. This is a unique event in meteoritics, and will be studied for decades.

Classification Data: The Carancas meteorite is a chondrite, (H4-5) type, with high metal and many small chondrules. It is also highly shocked, with most pieces exhibiting black shock veins. The total known weight is unknown, but it likely in the neighborhood of 10 metric tons! Less than 10 kilograms was recovered from around the crater just after the fall. There is an ongoing controversy over this meteorite as the Peruvian government has closed the site and refuses to excavate the meteorite, which is sitting under water at this time, as the crater is below the water table. It is a sad day for meteoritics, as the meteorite is being destroyed before our very eyes. The few kilos of material that was recovered by myself and my friends will likely be the only pristine meteorite material from this fall to survive.

I mounted an expedition to the Carancas Peru two weeks after the fall, and below are some photos  of the strewnfield and meteorites !

The map above illustrates the fall of the Carancas meteorite. Created by and used with the permission of Dr. Lionel Jackson, Geological Survey of Canada.

The photo above shows the smoke-trail of the Carancas meteorite, taken by a local boy, some minutes after the fall. This is very rare, with only 10 or so such photos known to exist of meteorite smoke-trails.

This photo shows the massive Carancas meteorite crater, one of the largest craters known to be caused by the fall of a chondrite meteorite. This is myself in front of the crater, photo taken Saturday, 29 September, 2007. 

This offering consists of a beautiful piece of this meteorite. This piece weighs 0.540 gram and is a very nice fresh fragment. It will include copies of crater photos.  The cube in the photo measures 1 cm.

Be sure to see the MSNBC article about this meteorite.  MSNBC article about the Carancas meteorite fall

Be sure to see me in the March 1999 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine, I am featured in an article about meteorite hunters!

I am also featured in Fortune Small Business magazine.  Fortune Small Business Magazine

Here is a link to my expedition report from Peru.  Carancas meteorite fall expedition report

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