Howardites
Topic

#Hot deserts

Meteorites from the Sahara, Arabia and other deserts, where dry air preserves them for thousands of years.

Lessons (4)

Courses (2)

  • Where in the world?Meteorites can land anywhere. But some places are easier to find them in than others. Let's look at a map of the world.
  • Falls and findsSome meteorites are picked up just after people see them land. Most are found years or thousands of years later.

Teachers (1)

Explainers (1)

Famous meteorites (8)

  • Almahata SittaThe first asteroid spotted in space before it hit the Earth – and the meteorites later collected from the Sudanese desert.
  • Dar al Gani 476A Martian rock found in the Libyan Sahara in 1998, packed with olivine crystals and part of a family of desert finds.
  • HolbrookIn 1912 thousands of stones rained down near a railway station in the Arizona desert – and people are still finding them.
  • ImilacA pallasite scattered across the Atacama Desert, whose weathered pieces look like metal sponges.
  • NWA 7034Nicknamed Black Beauty, this dark Martian breccia contains the oldest pieces of Mars yet found.
  • TatahouineA meteorite that shattered into green crystals in the Tunisian desert in 1931 – a fragment from deep inside the asteroid Vesta.
  • TissintIn 2011 a fireball over the Moroccan desert delivered the freshest pieces of Mars that scientists had seen in half a century.
  • Vaca MuertaA mesosiderite scattered across the Atacama Desert, named after a 'dead cow' and found by prospectors in the 19th century.

Meteorite types (15)

  • AcapulcoitesFine-grained rocks that only just began to melt. Named after Acapulco in Mexico, which fell in 1976, acapulcoites are fine-grained rocks of
  • AngritesThe oldest volcanic rocks known, from a vanished early planetesimal. Named after Angra dos Reis in Brazil, which fell in 1869, angrites are
  • CH chondrites'High metal' carbonaceous chondrites with tiny chondrules. CH chondrites are rich in iron-nickel metal, about 20% of the rock by vol
  • ChassignitesOlivine-rich Martian rocks; the first known fell in France in 1815. Chassignites are dunites, rocks made almost entirely of olivine, that fo
  • CR chondritesMetal-bearing carbonaceous chondrites with some of the most pristine organic matter known.
  • Lunar basalts and gabbrosDark volcanic rock from the lunar maria, the Moon's great lava plains. Lunar basalts are pieces of the dark lava plains, the maria, that
  • Feldspathic lunar meteoritesPale breccias from the ancient lunar highlands, the most common kind of Moon rock to reach Earth.
  • Lunar meteoritesRocks from the Moon, found mainly in deserts and Antarctica. Lunar meteorites are pieces of the Moon blasted off by impacts.
  • Mingled lunar brecciasBreccias that mix highland and mare rock, from the borders between the two. Mingled breccias contain both pale highland material and dark ma
  • Martian meteoritesRocks from Mars, recognised by gas from the Martian atmosphere trapped inside them.
  • ALH 84001 and other Martian rocksThe ancient Martian rock once claimed to hold fossils, and 'Black Beauty'. Allan Hills 84001, found in Antarctica in December 1984,
  • MesosideritesJumbled breccias of metal and basalt, made in a violent collision. Mesosiderites are breccias of roughly equal parts iron-nickel metal and s
  • Planetary achondritesRocks knocked off the Moon and Mars by impacts. A few achondrites come not from asteroids but from much larger worlds.
  • R chondrites (rumurutiites)Highly oxidised chondrites with almost no metal. R chondrites are named after Rumuruti in Kenya, the only one seen to fall (1934).
  • Ungrouped achondritesMelted rocks that match no known group: each may be the only sample of its own world. Some achondrites fit none of the named groups.

Meteorite minerals (7)

  • BrearleyiteA chlorine-bearing calcium aluminate formed when fluids altered an ancient inclusion.
  • DmitryivanoviteA dense form of calcium aluminate found in the oldest inclusions of carbonaceous chondrites.
  • KrotiteA calcium aluminium oxide found in an unusual refractory inclusion, until then known only from cement.
  • LouisfuchsiteA rhönite-type calcium magnesium titanium silicate, a refractory mineral from the solar nebula.
  • MelliniiteA nickel-rich phosphide with four metal atoms per phosphorus, first found in a primitive achondrite.
  • StöffleriteCalcium feldspar in the dense hollandite structure: the high-pressure partner of anorthite.
  • VestaiteA titanium iron oxide that crystallised in shock-melt pockets of a eucrite from Vesta.

Glossary (11)

Questions and answers (20)

Impact craters (17)

  • AmguidAmguid is a small, beautifully preserved impact crater in the Sahara Desert of central Algeria.
  • AoroungaAorounga lies deep in the Sahara in northern Chad, in one of the most remote and wind-swept landscapes on Earth.
  • AouelloulAouelloul is a small, simple impact crater about 390 m across in the Adrar region of the Sahara, in Mauritania.
  • BPBP, also known as Gebel Dalma, is an eroded impact structure about 3.2 km across in the Libyan Desert, in south-eastern Libya.
  • Connolly BasinConnolly Basin is an impact structure about 9 km across in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia, one of the most remote parts of the conti
  • GliksonGlikson is an eroded impact structure about 19 km across in the Little Sandy Desert of Western Australia.
  • Gweni-FadaGweni-Fada is a crater that was found from space. It lies in the Ennedi region of north-eastern Chad, a remote area of sandstone plateaus, c
  • Jabal Waqf as SuwwanJabal Waqf as Suwwan is an impact structure about 5.5 km across in the desert of central Jordan, about 125 km south-east of Amman. What can
  • KamilKamil Crater, in the remote south-western corner of Egypt, is one of the freshest-looking impact craters on Earth.
  • MonturaquiMonturaqui is a small meteorite crater in one of the driest places on Earth, the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.
  • OasisOasis is an eroded impact structure in the Libyan Desert of south-eastern Libya, about 80 km south of the smaller BP structure.
  • OuarkzizOuarkziz is an eroded impact structure about 3.5 km across in the desert of Tindouf Province, western Algeria, close to the border with Moro
  • Roter KammRoter Kamm, in the southern Namib Desert of Namibia, is a crater surrounded by sand. Its name is German for "red comb", after the
  • Tabun-Khara-OboTabun-Khara-Obo is a small impact crater about 1.3 km across in the eastern Gobi Desert of Mongolia. What can be seen.
  • TenoumerTenoumer is one of the most perfect-looking craters on Earth. It rises out of the flat, gravelly plains of the Sahara in north-western Mauri
  • Tin BiderTin Bider is an eroded impact structure about 6 km across in the Sahara of central Algeria, on the Tinrhert plateau. What can be seen.
  • WabarWabar lies deep in the Rub' al Khali, the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, the largest sand desert on Earth.

Impact events (1)

  • Asteroid 2008 TC3The first asteroid ever seen in space before it hit Earth. On 6 October 2008 the astronomer Richard Kowalski, working with a survey telescop

Micrometeorites (1)

History (1)

Myths and folklore (1)

People (3)

  • Carl AgeeThe New Mexico scientist who led the 2013 study of Black Beauty, a Martian breccia full of water-bearing minerals and ancient crust. Carl B.
  • Muawia ShaddadThe University of Khartoum astronomer who led students across the Nubian Desert to recover Almahata Sitta in 2008. Muawia H.
  • Philip BlandThe planetary scientist who built the Desert Fireball Network across the Australian outback and recovered the Murrili meteorite from a salt

Museums and collections (2)

Strewn fields (1)

  • The Tissint strewn fieldOnly the fifth Martian meteorite seen to fall, its glossy black stones gathered from a remote desert valley months later.

Meteorite law (1)

  • Meteorite law in OmanMeteorites are treated as national heritage. Collecting, possessing, trading and exporting them without official permission is prohibited, a

Meteorites (the 60 largest of 5,989)