Didim              37°21’6.2’’N 27°19’47.9’’E

Didim, Aydin province, Turkey

Fall: 1 February 2007 at 5.30 p.m. local time

Ordinary Chondrite (H3-5 regolith breccia)

History: Many persons from Bodrum, Milas and Didim cities heard an enormous explosion followed by dozens of sounds like gunshots, several in a short interval. Other people as far as 200 km from Didim saw a fireball indicating that the meteorite fell in a southerly direction in the vicinity of the southwestern coastline on the Aegean Sea. Many rocks probably fell into the sea. One (D1) weighing about 500 g fell about ten meters from Mr Abdullah Aritürk at Yesilkent, a small district of Didim. He kept about half of it and gave 210 g to Prof. Mehmet Emin Özel of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Physics Department. Two other samples (D2 = 846 g and D3 = 2340 g) were found one after the other by Mr Hayati Ertugrul and collected by Ms Özlem Kocahan, PhD student, and Prof. Özel. Two small pieces of D1 and D2 were brought to the MNHN in Paris by Mr Mesut Kasikci, the only Turkish collector, living in France, who first informed academic research institutions of the recent fall.

Physical characteristics: All three samples (total mass: 3396 g) were totally covered by a thin black fusion crust.

Petrography: (Catherine Caillet Komorowski, MNHNP) Breccia showing a mixture of sub-millimeter to centimeter size H5 white clasts in a dark H3 host. D1 sample exhibits exclusively the H5 texture with little matrix and poorly defined chondrules. Opaque phases represent about 9.5 vol% and rare copper occurs in Ni-rich metal at the interface with sulfide in the H5 part. D2 sample exhibits both H5 (observed in D1 sample) and H3 lithologies. In the unequilibrated H3 part, opaque phases represent 12 vol%. Metal is much more abundant than sulfide and is located in and around the chondrules. Chondrules are small, in some cases less than 0.2 mm. Many olivine porphyritic chondrules and some large olivine crystals (0.5 mm) are present in a fine-grained matrix. Numerous chondrules contain luminescent forsterite. Silica-bearing, spinel-rich, chromite and glassy chondrules were found in addition to banded clasts and broken chondrules which both can contain pure enstatite associated with fine-grained metal. No CAIs were found.

Mineral compositions: EMPA of olivine and pyroxene crystals indicate a rather homogeneous composition in the white lithology (Fa_19–20, Fs_17–19) and a quite variable composition in the darker lithology of the meteorite where about one third of the chondrules and clasts contain almost pure forsterite and enstatite compositions. In this type 3 lithology Fo ranges from 67 to 100% and En ranges from 70 to 99%.

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H3-5); S2, W0.

Type specimens: Two samples (total mass of 31.6 grams), one polished thin section of D1 and one polished section of D2 are on deposit at MNHNP. Another sample of D3 will soon be deposited at MNHNP. Main masses are kept at Çanakkale University, Turkey (CanaU). A sample of D3 belongs to a private collector, Mesut Kasikçi.