30-Ton Chunk Of 4,500 Year-Old Meteorite Unearthed In Argentina

By Nancy Atkinson - September 14, 2016 06:32 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Holy iron meteorite, Batman! A gigantic 30-ton chunk of the famous Campo del Cielo meteorite fall has been found outside of a small town in Argentina. The Gancedo meteorite was found on September 10, 2016 by a team of meteorite hunters from the Astronomy Association of the Chaco. This is the second largest piece ever found in the Campo del Cielo region.

Gancedo is the name of the town and Chaco is the province in Argentina where the meteorite was found.

[caption id="attachment_130812" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

A 30-ton Campo del Cielo meteorite being extracted from the ground in Argentina. Credit: Ministerio de Gobierno Facebook page. [/caption]

Scientists estimate about 4,500 years ago, a 600 ton space rock entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart, sending a shower of metallic meteorites across a 1,350 square km region northwest of Buenos Aires. The region has at least 26 craters.

A spokesman from the Chaco Astronomy Association said they will have the meteorite re-weighed to verify its weight.

The

Ministerio de Gobierno Facbook page

shared images and a video of the extraction.

While some media outlets have reported this is the second largest meteorite ever found, it actually is only the second largest meteorite from the Campo del Cielo site. The largest meteorite found on Earth is the Hoba meteorite, discovered in Namibia, Africa and is estimated to weigh more than 132,000 pounds (66 tons), and the second largest is the El Chaco, also part of the Campo del Cielo meteorite fall, which weighs an estimated 37,000 kilograms (37 tons).

Meteorites from Campo del Cielo are widely available, but if you are interested in getting a piece, buy only from reputable dealers.

Campo del Cielo meteorites are described as a polycrystalline coarse octahedrite, the most common kind of nickel-iron meteorites.

Sources and further reading:

Facebook,

ABC News,

Scientific American,

Meteorite Market.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com