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Épinal
Basic information Name: Épinal
     This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name.
Abbreviation: There is no official abbreviation for this meteorite.
Observed fall: Yes
Year fell: 1822
Country: France
Mass:help 277 g
Classification
  history:
NHM Catalogue:  5th Edition  (2000)  H5
MetBase:  v. 7.1  (2006)  H5
Recommended:  H5    [explanation]

This is 1 of 11504 approved meteorites (plus 23 unapproved names) classified as H5.   [show all]
Search for other: H chondrites, H chondrites (type 4-7), Ordinary chondrites, and Ordinary chondrites (type 4-7)
Comments: Revised 4 Jan 2020: Added fall info and updated coords
Writeuphelp
Writeup from MB online:
Épinal
History (P.-M. Pelé, meteor-center.com):
On September 13, 1822, at 7 a.m., during a thunderstorm, the inhabitants of the city of La Baffe and neighboring villages heard a rumble that seemed to follow a southwest to northeast orientation, like the storm. This noise was, however, distinct from thunder. At the same time, a farmer, Nicolas Etienne, was returning from Docelles, going to La Baffe. Three quarters of a league from this locality, worried by the noises coming from the sky, he stopped, went out of his cart, and then heard "a clicking similar to that of a large number of bottles that one would break", followed by a dull explosion. He then saw a meteor fragmenting and witnessed the impact of a stone on the ground. A few minutes later, Mr. Etienne went to the place only a few meters from his horse. The meteorite made a hole in the sandy ground, covered with cobblestones from the path leading to the village. At the bottom, he found fragments of a rock covered with a blackish crust. The estimated coordinates are 48° 9'16.55"N, 6°35'19.17"E. Other pieces were found in the surrounding fields. Twenty farmers, who were a short distance away, came to meet Mr. Etienne, and each then took a piece of the rock. Etienne soon had only one piece, which he gave to the Prefect. Four other people also gave their fragments. Mr. Etienne indicated that the initial stone may have been the size of a ball of six, a type of cannonball  about 9 cm in diameter, which would correspond to a mass of about a kilogram; this remains theoretical. At least one other stone was found at the entrance to the Bois de Tanières, located about 2 km from La Baffe, estimated coordinates 48° 7'57.42"N, 6°34'6.35"E. In this regard; Lacroix indicated in 1927 that the 210 g specimen listed in the inventory of meteorites of MNHNP was found in that wood.
Institutions
   and collections
MNHNP: Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IMPMC-CP52, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France, France; Website (institutional address)
Catalogs:
Search for this meteorite in the Natural History Museum collection (U.K.):   
    Require NHM photo
References: Never published in the Meteoritical Bulletin
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Photos:
CreditPhotos
Photos from the Encyclopedia of Meteorites:
Br. Guy Consolmagno, Vatican collection   
Geography:

France
Coordinates:
     Catalogue of Meteorites:   (48° 11'N, 6° 28'E)
     Recommended::   (48° 9' 17"N, 6° 35' 19"E)
Note: the NHM and recommended coordinates are 9.6 km apart

Statistics:
     This is the only approved meteorite from Lorraine, France
     This is 1 of 78 approved meteorites from France (plus 12 unapproved names) (plus 1 impact crater)
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Synonymshelp: La Baffe (In NHM Cat)
Revision
  history:
  This lists important revisions made to data for this record.

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