Maribo                              54°45′43′′N, 11°28′3′′E

Sjaelland, Denmark

Fell 17 January 2009, 20:09 local time (UT+1)

Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2)

History: A bright fireball was seen over the Baltic Sea at 20:09 (CET), January 17, 2009. The fireball was caught on a surveillance video camera in southern Sweden and on an all sky camera in the Netherlands. Three bright explosions are seen on the video and a glowing plasma trail that persisted about 3 s. Explosions were heard up to five minutes after the fireball in southern Zealand, on the eastern part of the island Lolland, and at the German Baltic Sea. 550 eyewitness reports were received by the Danish fireball network. The supersonic boom was registered by two infrasound stations and a few seismometers in Germany and Denmark. The bolide’s light curve was recorded by a few radiometers of the European Fireball Network. On March 4, the Thomas Grau (ERFM) found the first and so far only meteorite from the fall. The meteorite had penetrated a few cm into a grass surface.

Physical characteristics: One fragment was recovered. The meteorite appeared intact when found, but fell into many pieces when it was touched, probably due to the action of freezing and thawing during the six weeks that passed before it was found. The total mass was 25.8 g.

Petrography (A. Bischoff, IfP; H. Haack, NHMD): Various coarse-grained components are embedded within an opaque fine-grained matrix. These components include chondrules, fine-grained olivine aggregates, large isolated lithic and mineral fragments (often olivine), rare CAIs, and porous aggregates. The components are typically rimmed by fine-grained dust mantles. The abundance of chondrules is low. Chondrule diameters are generally less than 0.4 mm with a few up to 0.9 mm. Some chondrules are partially altered to tochilinite and cronstedtite. Metals occur (as a minor constituent) in chondrules and matrix. The porous aggregates are irregular in shape and measure a couple of hundred microns across. They contain zoned grains of olivine and pyroxene, tochilinite, cronstedtite, pyrrhotite and pentlandite. The matrix includes abundant dust rimmed fragments of tochilinite with a layered structure.

Mineral compositions and geochemistry: Most olivines in the coarse-grained components are Fo-rich, but some Fe-rich olivines have been found (Fa up to 85 mol%). Oxygen isotopes: (I. Franchi and R. Greenwood, OU), (mean of two replicates: δ¹⁷O = −1.27‰; δ¹⁸O = 4.96‰; Δ¹⁷O = −3.85‰)

Classification: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2), shock stage S0.

Type specimens: As required by Danish law T. Grau turned in the meteorite to NHMD. A total of 24 g and three thin sections are now on deposit at the NHMD. One thin section is on deposit at UM.