Best Chondrite
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L'Aigle is an L6 ordinary chondrite that fell near the town of L'Aigle in Normandy, France, on 26 April 1803. Thousands of stones reportedly reached the ground across a broad area, allowing physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot to collect testimony and examine physical evidence for the French Academy of Scie...
Semarkona is an LL3.00 ordinary chondrite that fell near Semarkona, India, in 1940. Its minerals experienced exceptionally little thermal metamorphism on their parent asteroid, preserving chondrules, fine-grained material, and other evidence from the early solar system. Researchers use it to investi...
The Ensisheim meteorite is an LL6 ordinary chondrite that fell in a field near Ensisheim, Alsace, on 7 November 1492. Contemporary accounts recorded the event, and much of the stone was preserved after local people initially removed fragments. King Maximilian, later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I,...
Peekskill is an H6 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell over the eastern United States on October 9, 1992. Its luminous atmospheric passage was recorded on numerous amateur videos during high school football games, giving researchers unusually extensive documentation of its trajectory. A fragment...
Jilin, also transliterated as Kirin, is an H5 ordinary chondrite meteorite shower that fell in Jilin Province, China, on March 8, 1976. Thousands of fragments were recovered from a broad strewn field after a large meteoroid fragmented in the atmosphere. The largest recovered piece weighs about 1,770...
Pultusk is an H5 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell near Pułtusk, Poland, in 1868. The event produced an unusually extensive shower of stones over a broad area, and thousands of individual fragments were subsequently recovered. As an H-group chondrite, it contains abundant iron-bearing material,...
Wold Cottage is an L6 ordinary chondrite that fell near Wold Newton in Yorkshire, England, on 13 December 1795. Witnesses reported the stone striking the ground and excavated it from the resulting hole, providing unusually clear evidence at a time when the extraterrestrial origin of meteorites remai...
Bishunpur is an LL3.1 ordinary chondrite that fell in India in 1895. Its very low petrologic subtype indicates that it experienced relatively little thermal metamorphism on its parent asteroid, allowing primitive components such as chondrules and fine-grained matrix material to remain comparatively...
Chainpur is an LL3.4 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell in India in 1907. Its low petrologic type indicates that it experienced relatively little thermal metamorphism on its parent body, allowing many chondrules and other early solar-system materials to remain distinct. Researchers study it as a...
Krymka is an LL3.1 ordinary chondrite meteorite associated with a 1946 fall in Ukraine. Its very low petrologic subtype identifies it as a highly unequilibrated specimen whose components underwent comparatively little thermal alteration after accumulation on its parent body. The preservation of dist...
Mocs is an L6 ordinary chondrite that fell in 1882 near Mocs, in territory now belonging to Romania. The event produced a broad shower from which hundreds of individual stones were reportedly recovered, making it a well-represented historic fall. Its L classification denotes an ordinary chondrite gr...
Bjurböle is an L/LL4 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell in Finland in 1899. More than 330 kilograms of material were recovered, making it one of the largest documented meteorite falls in Scandinavia. Its chondritic structure and intermediate chemical classification make specimens relevant to res...
Carancas is an H4-5 ordinary chondrite that struck near Lake Titicaca in Peru in 2007. The impact produced a crater roughly 13 meters across, an unusual documented result for a relatively small stony meteorite, and scattered fragments around the site. Residents subsequently reported illness, althoug...
Hraschina is an iron meteorite that fell in 1751 near Hrašćina in present-day Croatia. The witnessed fall and subsequent official investigation made it an important early European case in the developing scientific study of meteorites. It is classified within the IAB complex, whose members commonly c...
Park Forest is an L5 ordinary chondrite that fell over northeastern Illinois on March 26, 2003. A bright fireball fragmented above the Chicago suburbs, scattering stones across Park Forest and nearby communities; several fragments struck houses and other property. Its well-documented fall, rapid rec...
Barwell is an L5 ordinary chondrite that fell over Barwell in Leicestershire, England, on December 24, 1965. The meteoroid fragmented in the atmosphere and scattered numerous stones across the village, some of which struck buildings and other property. With roughly 44 kilograms recovered, it is gene...
Tieschitz is an unequilibrated ordinary chondrite that fell in 1878 near Těšice in Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. It is commonly classified as H/L3.6, reflecting characteristics intermediate between the H and L chemical groups and a relatively low degree of thermal metamorphism. Its abunda...
Bruderheim is an L6 ordinary chondrite that fell near Bruderheim, Alberta, on March 4, 1960. The atmospheric breakup produced a widely observed fireball and a substantial strewn field from which roughly 300 kilograms of material were recovered. The large documented sample and equilibrated mineral co...
Holbrook is an L6 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell near Holbrook, Arizona, on 19 July 1912. Witnesses observed a fireball and fragmentation, followed by a shower that scattered thousands of mostly small stones across the surrounding area. As an equilibrated ordinary chondrite, its mineral comp...
Saint-Séverin is an LL6 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell near Saint-Séverin in southwestern France on 27 June 1966. Its witnessed fall and the recovery of multiple fragments gave researchers comparatively fresh material with a documented terrestrial history. As an equilibrated LL chondrite, it...
Paragould is an LL5 ordinary chondrite that fell near Paragould, Arkansas, in 1930. Its classification indicates a meteorite with relatively low total iron and low metallic iron whose constituent minerals were thermally equilibrated within its parent asteroid. Multiple recovered masses, including a...
L6 ordinary chondrite that fell February 16, 1883, near Alfianello, Lombardy, Italy; its ~228 kg total mass ranks it among Italy's largest witnessed falls.
Benld is an H6 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell near Benld in Macoupin County, Illinois, on September 29, 1938. A fragment penetrated the roof of a garage and struck a parked automobile, making the fall notable as a documented case of a meteorite damaging human property. Its H6 classification...
Sharps is an H3.4 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell in Virginia in 1921. Its classification places it among relatively unequilibrated H-group chondrites, which contain abundant metal and preserve chondrules and other early solar system textures more clearly than strongly heated ordinary chondri...
Hessle is an H5 ordinary chondrite meteorite that fell near Hessle in Uppsala County, Sweden, on January 1, 1869. The event produced a shower of stones over a broad area and was observed by numerous witnesses, allowing many individual fragments to be recovered. As an equilibrated ordinary chondrite,...
Ochansk is an H4 ordinary chondrite that fell in the Perm region of Russia in 1887. The fall produced a large quantity of material, with a reported total mass approaching 500 kilograms, making it a substantial documented H-chondrite shower. Its type 4 classification indicates that its original chond...
Richardton is an H5 ordinary chondrite that fell near Richardton, North Dakota, on June 30, 1918. The H classification indicates relatively high total iron, while petrologic type 5 shows that its constituent minerals were substantially equilibrated by thermal metamorphism on the parent asteroid. Rec...
Allegan is an H5 ordinary chondrite that fell near Allegan, Michigan, in 1899. The H classification denotes an ordinary-chondrite group with relatively high total iron, while petrologic type 5 indicates substantial thermal metamorphism on its parent asteroid without complete melting. As a witnessed...
