The Allende strewn field
The largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found, spread along a 50-kilometre field in the Chihuahua desert.
Key facts
- Fell
- 8 February 1969, 1.05 in the morning
- Where
- near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico
- Recovered
- 2 to 3 tonnes, perhaps more
- Field
- about 50 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide
- Type
- Carbonaceous chondrite, CV3
The fall
A brilliant fireball broke apart with booms over the desert in the middle of the night. By morning people were picking up black-crusted stones from fields, roads and rooftops.
The ellipse
The stones lay along an ellipse about 50 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide, one of the largest strewn fields of any stony meteorite. Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution mapped it with help from local people within weeks of the fall.
Where the big and small pieces landed
The fireball came in from the south-south-west, and the larger stones generally lay towards the north-eastern end of the field, in the direction of travel, as mass sorting predicts. The largest single stone weighed about 110 kilograms. Over the following decades 2 to 3 tonnes were gathered, and stones are still occasionally found.
The law
We know of no Mexican law written for meteorites. Local people collected and sold Allende stones for decades, and it is among the most widely distributed meteorites in the world.
Related pages
Glossary: Strewn field, Strewn field map, Fusion crust, Meteorite ownership