The Campo del Cielo strewn field
A crater field on the Gran Chaco plains that has given up more than 100 tonnes of iron, including two of the heaviest meteorites known.
Key facts
- Fell
- about 4,000 to 4,500 years ago
- Where
- Chaco and Santiago del Estero provinces, Argentina
- Recovered
- well over 100 tonnes
- Field
- at least 26 craters along a belt about 18 kilometres long and 3 kilometres wide
- Type
- Iron, IAB
The fall
A large iron meteoroid broke apart and its fragments struck the plain together, blasting a line of craters and starting fires whose charcoal has been radiocarbon dated to about 4,000 to 4,500 years ago. People were almost certainly living nearby. Spanish explorers recorded the iron in 1576.
The ellipse
The craters lie in a long, narrow belt about 18 kilometres long and 3 wide, the largest crater about 100 metres across. Many more small fragments are scattered beyond the craters.
Where the big and small pieces landed
The biggest masses lie in or near the largest craters. El Chaco, found in a crater in 1969, weighs about 29 tonnes, and Gancedo, dug out in 2016, about 30.8 tonnes. Thousands of smaller irons, from grams to boulders, have been found by local people over the centuries.
The law
A national law of 2007 makes meteorites in Argentina cultural property and prohibits their sale and export, and Chaco Province protects the field. An attempt to remove El Chaco from the country in 1990 was stopped.
The full story of Campo del Cielo
Related pages
Glossary: Strewn field, Strewn field map, Fusion crust, Meteorite ownership