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Ensisheim | |||||||||||||
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Basic information | Name: Ensisheim This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name. Abbreviation: There is no official abbreviation for this meteorite. Observed fall: Yes Year fell: 1492 Country: France Mass: ![]() | ||||||||||||
Classification history: |
This is 1 of 2890 approved meteorites (plus 2 unapproved names) classified as LL6. [show all] Search for other: LL chondrites, LL chondrites (type 4-7), Ordinary chondrites, and Ordinary chondrites (type 4-7) | ||||||||||||
Comments: | Revised 4 Jan 2020: Added fall info, updated coords | ||||||||||||
Writeup![]() |
Writeup from MB online:
Ensisheim
History (P.-M. PelĂ©, meteor-center.com): In 1492, a meteorite fell in a field on the edge of the forest near the Alsatian town of Ensisheim. A young boy witnessed the stone fall in a wheat field, at a place called Les Octrois Laubourg, south of the city. The stone was in a hole a meter deep. After the residents and the city council were notified, many went to the place; the meteorite had already been damaged, everyone wishing to keep a fragment. The council then took strict measures to stop this destruction and brought the stone to the Ensisheim church, where people could come and see it. Twenty days later, King Maximilian of Austria, in conflict with the King of France, Charles VIII, went to his Alsatian lands and heard about the stone. He had two fragments removed from the main mass, kept one for himself, and gave the other one to the Sigismund Archduke of Austria. The meteorite was then hung in the church; an old inscription attached to it indicates: "De hoc lapide multi multa, omnes aliquid, nema satis" ("Many have spoken of this stone, all said something, nobody has said enough.") Like many other goods belonging to the Church, the meteorite was removed by the Revolutionaries and then sent to the Colmar museum in 1795, where it was stored without special attention for nearly ten years; in 1804, the stone, which weighed only 55 kg, went back to Ensisheim, and was suspended in the choir of the church. The building, which had not been maintained since the French Revolution in 1789, was in poor condition. On November 6, 1854, the bell tower collapsed, but the meteorite was not damaged. It was then stored in the school, and then in the Ensisheim town hall. It is currently in the Palace of the Regency, where the old town hall was located, and can be seen in the Museum. The remaining mass weighs 53.831 kg. The place of fall is near the point 47°51’10.1’’N, 7°22’34’’E (a place called in old times, Les Octrois Laubourg, located south of Ensisheim, on the road to Battenheim.) | ||||||||||||
Plots: | O isotopes: | ||||||||||||
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References: | Never published in the Meteoritical Bulletin
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Geography:![]() |
Statistics: This is the only approved meteorite from Alsace, France (plus 1 unapproved name) This is 1 of 78 approved meteorites from France (plus 12 unapproved names) (plus 1 impact crater) | ||||||||||||
Proximity search: | |||||||||||||
Synonyms![]() |
Elsass (In NHM Cat) |