Lodranite XXX

Ayoun el Atrous, Mauritania
Find, winter 2015

Achondrite, Lodranite
Complete piece, 232g
Size: 6,3 x 5,6 x 4,0 cm

History:
It was winter 2015, Yees Youssef told, but could not remember the exact date as time has very little meaning to berber people of the Sahara. His family had came close to the town limits of Ayoun el Atrous in southern Mauritania with their camels. His wife went to guide their camels as she does every morning, when she found this strange rock.

Nomads always look meteorites as they know it could bring them some extra money. They had seen and found meteorites before, but this piece was different that they had seen earlier. Yees Youssef said that he thought first that it could be a martian meteorite, but after some meteorite dealers saw it they told him that it’s a lodranite and not from Mars.

The piece travelled with the Youssef family and finally it was sold in a town Zouirat close to a boarder of Western Sahara to a meteorite dealer from Morocco in the September 2015 and soon again to a Jaouad Chaoui a member of the well known meteorite dealer family in Erfound Morocco.

The piece was aquired to J. Kettunen collection in the beginning of February 2016.

Specimen Description:
This is a complete piece with some fresh fusion crust. Piece have beautiful “heineken” green pyroxen crystals in the matrix, that are typical for Lodranites.

References:
Meteoritical Bulletin Database