The Aguas Zarcas strewn field
A shower of rare carbon-rich stones that crashed through a house roof and hit a doghouse in the Costa Rican countryside.
Key facts
- Fell
- 23 April 2019, 9.07 in the evening
- Where
- around Aguas Zarcas, Alajuela province, Costa Rica
- Recovered
- about 27 kilograms
- Field
- farmland and villages along a track several kilometres long
- Type
- Carbonaceous chondrite, CM2
The fall
A bright fireball was seen across central Costa Rica, and weather satellites recorded its flash. Moments later stones fell on farms and villages near Aguas Zarcas in the north of the country.
The ellipse
The stones lay along the fireball's track over a few kilometres of pasture, plantations and houses. Local people found many quickly, before heavy tropical rain could spoil them.
Where the big and small pieces landed
A stone of about 1.2 kilograms punched a grapefruit-sized hole in the roof of a house, and another of about 280 grams hit a doghouse. In all about 27 kilograms were recovered, making Aguas Zarcas one of the largest CM chondrite falls known, second only to Murchison. Fresh, quickly collected stones were valuable to scientists studying organic molecules and water-bearing minerals.
The law
We know of no Costa Rican law written for meteorites. Finders and landowners kept and sold many stones, and the University of Costa Rica studied samples.
Related pages
Glossary: Strewn field, Strewn field map, Fusion crust, Meteorite ownership