Chinguetti meteorite
Encyclopedia
The Chinguetti meteorite is a find reputed to come from a large unconfirmed 'iron mountain' in Africa.
The existence of a huge stony-iron mesosiderite
approximately 45 kilometers from the Sahara
n city Chinguetti
, Mauritania
, has been a mystery since 1916, when Captain Gaston Ripert, a French consular official, claimed to have discovered 'a huge iron hill 40 metres (130 ft) high and 100 m (330 ft) long.'
Ripert said that he had been guided blindfolded by a local chieftain to a natural source of iron
, at a 12 hour long camel ride to the south-east of Chinguetti.
He bagged a 4 kilogram fragment of the rock, which found its way to Paris
some years later, where geologist Alfred Lacroix pronounced that it was an important discovery. However, despite the attempts of several expeditions since, the supposed meteorite could not be found again.
Ripert wrote to Professor Théodore Monod
in 1934: 'I know that the general opinion is that the stone does not exist; that to some, I am purely and simply an impostor who picked up a metallic specimen. That to others, I am a simpleton who mistook a sandstone outcrop for an enormous meteorite. I shall do nothing to disabuse them, I know only what I saw.'
Despite various searches over the years, Monod concluded in 1989 that Ripert had been mistaken:
'An error was made in the identification of the rock of a 40-metre hill that is entirely sedimentary with no trace of metal,' he wrote.
In 1980, former French air force officer Jacques Gallouédec was carrying out aerial surveys for the Mauritanian water authority, when he spotted a strange semi-circular ground formation to the south-east of Chinguetti. He sent details to Théodore Monod but the professor was unable to locate it. He is the only person alive today who claims to have seen Ripert's rock.
In 2000, a US team claimed it had found the site, and determined it was just a large natural hematite formation. The meteorite fragments found nearby were unrelated to this formation. Finally, the Chinguetti fragment that was sent to Paris was analysed again, and it was concluded that it could not have been a meteor larger than 80 cm (31 in) in radius.
The existence of a huge stony-iron mesosiderite
Mesosiderite
Mesosiderites are a class of stony–iron meteorites consisting of about equal parts of metallic nickel-iron and silicate. They are breccias with an irregular texture; silicates and metal occur often in lumps or pebbles as well as in fine-grained intergrowths...
approximately 45 kilometers from the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
n city Chinguetti
Chinguetti
Chinguetti is a ksar or medieval trading centre in northern Mauritania, lying on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar.Founded in the 13th century, as the center of several trans-Saharan trade routes, this tiny city continues to attract a handful of visitors who admire its spare architecture, exotic...
, Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, has been a mystery since 1916, when Captain Gaston Ripert, a French consular official, claimed to have discovered 'a huge iron hill 40 metres (130 ft) high and 100 m (330 ft) long.'
Ripert said that he had been guided blindfolded by a local chieftain to a natural source of iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, at a 12 hour long camel ride to the south-east of Chinguetti.
He bagged a 4 kilogram fragment of the rock, which found its way to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
some years later, where geologist Alfred Lacroix pronounced that it was an important discovery. However, despite the attempts of several expeditions since, the supposed meteorite could not be found again.
Ripert wrote to Professor Théodore Monod
Théodore Monod
Théodore André Monod was a French naturalist, explorer, and humanist scholar.-Exploration:...
in 1934: 'I know that the general opinion is that the stone does not exist; that to some, I am purely and simply an impostor who picked up a metallic specimen. That to others, I am a simpleton who mistook a sandstone outcrop for an enormous meteorite. I shall do nothing to disabuse them, I know only what I saw.'
Despite various searches over the years, Monod concluded in 1989 that Ripert had been mistaken:
'An error was made in the identification of the rock of a 40-metre hill that is entirely sedimentary with no trace of metal,' he wrote.
In 1980, former French air force officer Jacques Gallouédec was carrying out aerial surveys for the Mauritanian water authority, when he spotted a strange semi-circular ground formation to the south-east of Chinguetti. He sent details to Théodore Monod but the professor was unable to locate it. He is the only person alive today who claims to have seen Ripert's rock.
In 2000, a US team claimed it had found the site, and determined it was just a large natural hematite formation. The meteorite fragments found nearby were unrelated to this formation. Finally, the Chinguetti fragment that was sent to Paris was analysed again, and it was concluded that it could not have been a meteor larger than 80 cm (31 in) in radius.
External links
- http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/E/ends/meteorite1.html
- http://www.dnp.fmph.uniba.sk/etext/40/text/MAPS36Welten2.pdf
- National Geographic ChannelNational Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
: 'The meteorite that vanished' documentary