Meteorite Pendant: Campo del Cielo

Location: Campo del Cielo, Gran Chaco Gualamba, Argentina.

Structural Class: Coarse octahedrite, OG, Widmanstatten bandwidth

3.0  ±0.6 mm

Chemical Class: Group 1, 6.68% Ni, 0.43% Co, 0.25% P, 87 ppm Ga, 407 ppm, Ge, 3.6 ppm Ir

Time of Fall: 4,000 – 6,000 years ago

The first record of the Campo meteorite was in 1576. A Spanish governor learned of deposits of iron from the Indians who reportedly believed that it had fallen from heaven. The location of the find was the Campo del Cielo (field of the sky or heaven), a fitting name for the location of a meteorite. Since the Indians believed that the irons fell from heaven the name may have come from the meteorites. Carbon dating of charred wood found in impact craters is consistent with an Indian oral tradition of the time the irons fell from heaven.  The area in which the meteorites are found is an open brush-covered plain that has little water and no other rocks, which is very good country in which to locate meteorites.  The larger meteorites are found in and around a series of small craters in the southwestern part of the strewn field. The largest crater measures 78x65 meters. The smallest being around 56 meters. All together, searchers have found at least 12 craters