[meteorite-list] the new fall of Foum El Hisn report

From: Pelé Pierre-Marie <pierremariepele_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 13:31:48 +0100
Message-ID: <1405600308.93467.BPMail_high_noncarrier_at_web171704.mail.ir2.yahoo.com>

Hello to the List !

Me and Fabien Kuntz (wwmeteorites) planned to go to Kosice this week to enjoy slovakian food and have great fun searching for meteorites in the forests when we heard on july 11 that a meteorite had fallen in southern Morocco.

So we changed our plane tickets, rented a car then on july 12, we arrived in Agadir. We headed to Foum El Hisn, 250 kilometers south-east of Agadir and we arrived there in the afternoon. We had a short break at the hotel then we went directly to the place.but first, the facts.

On july 9 in the evening, people from Foum El Hisn heard three detonations and saw a bolide fragmenting in three parts, south of their town. After recovering several testimonies, the supposed trajectory is north-west to south-east.

In the morning of july 10, some inhabitants recovered the first specimen on both sides of the road to Assa. Some pictures were published on Facebook showing wonderful shiny crust like an eucrite. It was enough to decide us to come.

We arrived 48 hours after the fall and hundreds of people were already searching by foot or 4wd cars.
The western part of the strewnfield is a alluvial rocky plain with hills wereas the eastern part is more sandy and flat.

We thought about a fall like Camel Donga or Puerto Lapice with many small complete stones between 1 and 15 grams. In the facts, we found many morrocan meteorite hunters (best hunters in the world) with empty hands dreaming of Tissint martian meteorites.

After several days hunting on the strewnfield, we only saw a 500 grams specimen, heard about a 8kg stone (probably gossip) and 1kg, 200 grams stones, saw 4 or 5 stones of about 50 grams, a few complete stones up to 5 grams and many crumbs because of the friable nature of the stone.
Now, morocan people are bored with searching in the morning when weather is acceptable and have a rest in the afternoon when temperature reaches 45 degrees Celsius. We estimate the total known mass under 5.5 kilograms right now.

Today, june 17, we went again to the strewnfield but most people have left the area.

We are waiting for the analysis results, next week probably.

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=957559IMG2605.jpg

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=886794IMG2585.jpg

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=219447IMG2688.jpg

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=340834IMG2690.jpg

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=470019IMG2599.jpg

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=918416IMG2597.jpg

 
Pierre-Marie Pel? (Meteor-Center) and Fabien Kuntz (WWMeteorites)
Received on Thu 17 Jul 2014 08:31:48 AM PDT


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