The Guenie and Gao chondrites from Burkina Faso: Probably a single shower of stones

Abstract

Abstract-Two H4-5 meteorite showers have been reported to have fallen at one month intervals in the Guenie-Gao area, but eyewitness accounts are imprecise. Though subtle mineralogical differences are found between stones with different 21Ne content, these differences are insufficient to confirm that two meteorite falls had occurred.

Enhanced nondestructive characterization of ordinary chondrites using complex magnetic susceptibility measurements

“…Gao–Guenie has been reported as microbrecciated (Michel‐Levy ; Bourot‐Denise et al. ); Michel‐Levy () further reported the presence of an unusual dark clast in a sample, which could suggest heterogeneity on the scale of the samples used for the magnetic susceptibility measurements. More recently, Gao–Guenie has been described as an impact melt breccia (Schmeider et al.…”

“…Originally described as two separate falls (Gao and Guenie, respectively), later analysis confirmed that they were indistinguishable from each other, and were thus reclassified as a single meteorite (Bourot‐Denise et al. ). Gao–Guenie has been reported as microbrecciated (Michel‐Levy ; Bourot‐Denise et al.…”

The thermal and physical characteristics of the Gao-Guenie (H5) meteorite

“…At various times, it has been suggested in the literature that two and possibly three meteorites fell within relatively short order of each other in the same region of Gao and Guenie (Walton, 1995;Otto et al, 1996). It is now reasonably clear, however, that all of the H5 chondrite meteorites collected in the Gao-Guenie strewn-field are from just one shower of stones (Bourbot-Denise et al, 1998). This being said, in addition to the H5 Gao-Guenie chondrite under study here carbonaceous chondrite meteorite finds have been collected in the same area.…”

“…(Grady, 2000). The meteorite suffered significant fragmentation during its atmospheric flight, as indicated by the presence of secondary ablation crust on many of the recovered fragments, and several hundreds of kilograms of small stones have been recovered from an extensive strewn-field covering an area of several hundred square kilometers (Bourbot-Denise et al, 1998).…”

One meteorite less from Vietnam

“…It seems a more exciting task to increase the number of known falls, rather than decreasing it, following the example of Bourot-Denise et al (1998) for Gao and Guenie falls from Burkina Faso. However, reducing the number of errors in the catalogue is also a positive contribution to the reliability ofthe meteorite database.…”