Abbans-Dessous        47°7.905’N, 5°52.533’E

Franche-Comté, France

Find: 2015 Jul 25

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (LL6)

History: On 25 July 2015, while he was looking for fossils in the Franche-Comté region, geologist Quentin Louis discovered a small black stone in the vicinity of Abbans-Dessous village, and recognized it as a possible meteorite. On 3 August 2015, he contacted Fabien Kuntz, a meteorite hunter living nearby in Besançon, who confirmed the stone was a meteorite. Despite several days of hunting together in the area over the summer 2015, and a notice to the local population, no other stones were found.

Physical characteristics: A single, fully crusted, roughly cubic stone.

Petrography: Microscopic observations on a polished section show a recrystallized chondritic texture with chondrules making most of the volume. Plagioclase to 100 μm. Chromite to 150 μm. The bulk density (bulk volume from X-ray microtomography) is 3.15 g/cm³ in agreement with the average LL value (3.21±0.22, N=39 falls, see Britt and Consolmagno, 2003).

Geochemistry: Magnetic susceptibility log χ (× 10^-9 m³/kg) = 4.20. Saturation magnetization (measured on the full stone) is 3.74 Am²/kg. Other magnetic properties indicate that a significant fraction of the FeNi metal is tetrataenite. Olivine Fa_29.0±0.1 (N=2), Orthopyroxene Fs_23.9±0.3 Wo_2.0±0.2 (N=2).

Classification: LL6.

Specimens: Type specimen (including a polished section) at CEREGE. Main mass with the finder Quentin Louis.