www.niger-meteorite-recon.de
The Tamdaght, Morocco meteorite fall page
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Photos courtesy of M.Aid & Svend Buhl, text Svend Buhl
The first Tiguert n'Ait Farss mass
The first mass in the vicinity of Tiguert n'Ait Farss was found on January 17. The find location is situated
on a Pleistocene alluvial terrace on the eastern side of the Tiguert canyon at an altitude of 1500 meters.
The delta shaped specimen has six surfaces, a slightly convex front side and a concave rear side. The specimen shows no signs
of orientation (the assignment of "front" and "rear" surfaces was made for differentiation only).
The front surface of the 2007g Tamdakht meteorite found near Tiguert n'Ait Farss (#01)
The 2 kg meteorite shows a fresh coarse primary fusion crust on the front and the
flanks. A few patches show distinct contraction cracks. The
rear surface reveals a textbook example of secondary fusion crust that is just beginning to form. The surface
texture is coarse grained and uneven, the structure of the fragmented rock can still be seen under a thin sooty coating.
Ridges and protrusions have already been smoothened by ablation but most of the surface still
has the appearence of a fresh fracture.
The rear surface of the Tiguert n'Ait Farss 01 meteorite showing secondary fusion crust just beginning to form
One more small surface on the tip of one corner shows secondary
fusion crust. It is in the same early stage as on the rear surface.
Obviously the meteorite suffered a violent in flight fragmentation. It's noteworthy that on several surfaces
of the meteorite small patches of the primary fusion crust are replaced by secondary crust in various stages of forming.
This indicates that shock and stress accumulated during the ablation phase successively lead to flaking of the crust.
A missing corner of the meteorite coated with secondary fusion crust
When the meteorite impacted it first hit the ground with a corner of the rear surface.
This caused a 3 x 3 cm corner to shear off. The missing material was mostly turned
into a fine powdered dust and mixed with the soil in the shallow impact pit it created. A few more smaller damages and white
impact marks bear witness of a rebouncing or subsequent rolling over the ground.
The matrix shows only very little signs of oxidation and displays no obvious
difference to the first meteorite finds of early January.
