Monahans (1998)

Ward County, Texas, USA

Fell 1998 22 March, 18:48 CST

Ordinary chondrite (H5)

Two stones, weighing 1344 g and 1243 g, fell in the city of Monahans, Texas, after two sonic booms and a fireball were observed over a wide area (up to 100 km from the fall site).  One stone penetrated the asphalt on a city street and was found in the sandy subsurface.  Classification and mineralogy (M. Zolensky and G. Lofgren, JSC): a light-dark breccia, with light and black clasts in a gray-colored, pulverized host matrix; olivine, Fa_18.8 (host); pyroxene, Fs_17.1Wo_1.4 (host); plagioclase, An_1–19Ab_70–75Or_6–29 (all lithologies);shock stage S2 (light clasts) to S4 (black clasts); the gray-colored matrix material contains blue crystals of indigenous halite and sylvite, some up to 3 mm in diameter, some euhedral.  Specimens:  both masses are owned by the City of Monahans, contact the City Manager; type specimen, 20 g, contact Dr. Everett Gibson, JSC.  The iron meteorite (group IIF) that was found south of Monahans, Texas, in 1938 will be designated henceforth as Monahans (1938).