Campo del Cielo Meteorites

Total Mass: over 100 tons to date
Time of Fall: 4,000 to 6,000 years ago
Location: Campo del Cielo, Gran Chaco Gualamba,
Argentina, about 500 miles north-northwest of
Buenos Aries.
Latitude 27 degrees 39 minutes South,
Longitude 61 degrees 44 minutes West.

Strewnfield: The larger Campo del Cielo meteorites are found in and around a series of small craters in the southwestern part of the strewn field. The largest crater is 78 by 65 meters. A smaller one is 56 meters in diameter and 5 meters deep. All together, searchers have found at least 12 craters.

The main part of the crater-forming mass was found in each of these craters. This is in contrast to Canyon Diablo and Odessa where the main crater-forming mass is believed to have vaporized or shattered on impact. In this respect, the field is similar to Sikhote-Alin.

Iron meteorites originate from the molten iron core of what was briefly a planet between Mars and Jupiter. This planet broke apart during formation approximately 4.5 billions years ago during the birth of the solar system, and its remnants comprise the asteroid belt

History of The Campo del Cielo Meteorite

The Campo del Cielo meteorite site was first discovered by the Spanish in 1576 in the Gran Chaco Gualamba region of Argentina, about 500 miles north-northwest of Buenos Aries The location of the find was Campo del Cielo (field of the heavens), an appropriate name for the location of a meteorite strewn field. Since the Indians believed that the irons fell from heaven the name is undoubtedly derived from the meteorites found in this area, which is an open brush-covered plain having little water and few rocks, making it great meteorite hunting country. Subsequent searches have found Campos over a large region.

Time of the Fall

Scientists have estimated the date of the Campo del Cielo fall using radiocarbon dating of charred wood found in the craters. Dates of 5800 years (plus or minus 200 years) and 3950 years (plus or minus 90 years) have been obtained. These dates are consistent with an Indian lore tradition that the irons fell from the heavens.

Structure of the Campo del Cielo

The Campo del Cielo is a polycrystalline coarse octahedrite. The Widmanstatten bands are thicker than those at Canyon Diablo or Odessa, but still have the same coarse octahedrite classification.

Composition of Campo del Cielo Meteorites

The Campo del Cielo is classified in Group IAB, , 6.68% Ni, 0.43% Co, 0.25% P, 87 ppm Ga, 407 ppm Ge, 3.6 ppm Ir. Of course, almost all of the remaining portion of the meteorite is iron.

Iron meteorites are extremely rare. Of all of the meteorites that fall on the earth, scientists estimate that only about five percent are Iron Meteorites.