Al Mahbas (proposed name)
This meteorite is only the
3rd Pallasite from Northwest Africa. It is from Al Mahbas, Western Sahara,
found in august 2004. A nomad found a large piece weighing several kilos
surrounded by a lot of shale pieces. He carried the meteorite for a
few miles, but got tired and hid it under a small tree in a wadi (creek
bed). He can not remember the place, so that piece is lost!
I went to the find site last week, (Nov 27th-Dec 3rd). The exact
GPS location of the center of the find site is N 27, 14, 25.7 by W008,50,49.5.
Anyone who goes to this site should find small pieces, but be warned,
the site is in a closed military zone, barely 3 miles from the Algerian
border. I found many small pieces, but I only had one hour to
search before the Moroccan military chased us from the area.
Please note, this is a very dangerous area. It lies in Western Sahara,
which Morocco annexed against the will of the people of that country.
There is a group named the Polisario who have been fighting against
Morocco in this
area for decades. The borders of Algeria and Mauritania
are both very close (Algeria with within sight) and this meteorite is
located in a heavily mined, closed military zone. No-one but the local
nomads and military are allowed there, we snuck in, but were chased
and nearly arrested for being there. It is not a safe place.
This is a gorgeous Pallasite, several pieces were complete individuals,
with black fusion crust and nice fresh metal, but around the hole where
the largest piece was found are many shale pieces and loose olivine
crystals. These are all polished olivine crystals and shale fragments.
To my knowledge, only 4 small metallic individuals are known, all weighing
from 16 grams to 68 grams only. The largest piece ~2-5 kilos has been
lost in the sand when hidden by the finder. A search is underway with
a metal detector I sold to the Moroccans. The meteorite is under
classification, but I'll go ahead and offer these up now since the holidays
are here.
