Kenyan Meteorite Donated to The Field Museum

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Kenyan Meteorite Donated to The Field Museum

Postby David Entwistle » Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:55 pm

The Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies, in Chicago, Illinois have received a donated specimen of Thika. See here for the report.

The Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies is proud to announce the newest addition to the meteorite collection. The newly named meteorite Thika, recently classified as a L6 ordinary chondrite, was donated to the Center by Collections and Research Committee member Terry Boudreaux in mid-September. Falling on the morning of July 16, this bright fireball was observed traveling from southern Kenya to the northwest. Residents in the Thika District in Kiambu County reported loud explosions and screaming noises. The first piece weighing about 2.5 kg fell within a meter of a woman tilling her field! Greenhouses were smashed in the village of Mwana Wikio and a house was damaged in nearby Muguga village. It was in the village of Muguga where, on August 8, Leah Mjoki found the 36 gram piece that would later make its way into The Field Museum’s collection. Thika belongs to a class of meteorites called ordinary chondrites, but, Collections Manager James Holstein (Geology) says, “There is nothing ordinary in what they can teach us. We can learn about asteroids and our Solar System’s history by studying the petrology and chemistry of these meteorites. For example, we can determine how large the meteoroid was before it entered Earth's atmosphere, when it broke away from its parent body and how long it took the meteorite to reach Earth.”


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Finder of the meteorite Thika in Kenya. Photo provided by Terry Boudreaux.

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The fusion crust free side of the Field Museum specimen of the meteorite Thika. Photo provided by Terry Boudreaux.
David Entwistle
 
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