2024-03-26 03:18:19
Why mightn’t we find the remains of the largest meteorite that hit our planet? The story of the Chinguetti meteorite is a very mysterious one
A 4.5-kilogram iron boulder, reportedly the top of a giant 100-metre-wide iron mountain, suggested to be a huge meteorite, was found in Africa in 1916.
With numerous searches, the existence of this larger parent meteorite has not been confirmed, but now, a team of researchers is back in search of it.
If it does exist, this iron mountain would represent the largest meteorite ever to hit the planet, and scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom want to use maps of magnetic anomalies such as those caused by huge masses of iron, in an attempt to find it.
Initially, the small piece of meteorite was recovered by French consular official Captain Gaston Ripert, who said he was blindfolded and directed to Iron Hill by a local chief.
The meteorite was named following the nearby city of Chinguetti, in Mauritania, northwest Africa. All subsequent attempts to find the giant iron mountain of which it was originally part until the 1990s were unable to find the place to which Ripert had been transported.
Furthermore, a 2001 study showed that this stony iron meteorite fragment might not have come from a mass larger than 1.6 metres, based on chemical analysis of the mineral.
Was Captain Ripper lying? Or simply wrong?
Perhaps neither, according to the latest researchers who took on the task of finding the Chinguetti meteorite. For example, the lack of an impact crater may be the result of the meteorite falling at a very low angle before hitting the Earth.
Previous searches may have turned up nothing because the iron mountain was covered in sand, or because the tools used were not precise, or because the search area was in the wrong place based on Ripert’s mysterious instructions – these are all possibilities, according to scientists in a new research paper. .
Perhaps most interestingly, Ripert specifically described a prominent feature on the Iron Mound, describing finding long metal needles that he attempted to remove from the smaller meteorite sample, but was unsuccessful.
The authors of the paper speculate that these iron structures might be nickel-iron phases known as Thomson structures. This was unheard of in 1916, and it is unlikely that Ripert would have made up such a remark.
For the first time, researchers here used digital elevation models, radar data, and interviews with local camel riders to narrow down the areas to which Ribert may have been transported, based on his report of a half-day trip.
Using the heights of sand dunes where the giant meteorite may be hiding evidence, the team identified areas of interest. Aeromagnetic survey data for these sites was requested from the Mauritanian Ministry of Petroleum Energy and Mines, and to date, access to that data has not yet been granted.
An alternative to this method of searching is to scan the area on foot for the long-lost meteorite, although this may take several weeks.
“If the result is negative, the interpretation of Ribert’s story will remain ambiguous, especially given the observation of the iron needles and the coincidental discovery of the meteorite fragment,” the researchers wrote.
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