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Gatuto
Basic information Name: Gatuto
     This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name.
Abbreviation: There is no official abbreviation for this meteorite.
Observed fall: Yes, confirmed fall
Year fell: 2020
Country: Kenya
Mass:help 25 kg
Classification
  history:
Meteoritical Bulletin:  MB 109  (2020)  L6
Recommended:  L6    [explanation]

This is 1 of 12727 approved meteorites (plus 11 unapproved names) classified as L6.   [show all]
Search for other: L chondrites, L chondrites (type 4-7), Ordinary chondrites, and Ordinary chondrites (type 4-7)
Comments: Approved 4 Jul 2020
Writeuphelp
Writeup from MB 109:

Gatuto        0° 34' 12"S,  37° 17' 24"E

Central, Kenya

Confirmed fall: 2020

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (L6)

History: (per J. Higgins and M. Farmer) At about 8:27 pm on the evening of April 24, 2020, several witnesses near the village of Gatuto, Kenya, saw a bright trail in the sky, and about 5 minutes later heard three detonations followed by another longer sound ending with a bang. One of the witnesses to these phenomena, Mr. Josphat Gakere, was outside his house near Gatuto road when he and his family saw the fireball and heard detonations. Moments later he witnessed the impact of an object 15 m away, and discovered a 1 m deep hole in his maize garden. The following morning, an intact 6140 g fusion-crusted stone was excavated from the hole. Mrs. Mary Wamburu was preparing supper in her house near the village of Kombuini (between Kagio and Kutus) when she heard a noise on the corrugated metal roof. She looked into the next room and saw a hole in the roof and shattered rock on the concrete floor. Further investigations led by Mr. Mahamed Nur Ogle resulted in the recovery of a 2290 g stone, excavated next to a tree with bark shredded at a high angle to the ground on the farm adjacent to Mr. Gakere’s farm, as well as a 1 kg stone next to the Kerugoya-Kaguma road near the nearby village of Kimicha, an additional 494.4 g of fragments from other farms, and 117.7 g of fragments which had impacted and made white marks on the Kagio-Kutus road near Kimicha. Another >8 kg stone was excavated from its impact hole behind a man’s home located 2.2 km NNW of Gatuto; although people struck the stone with a hammer and removed some fragments, a ~7.4 kg intact piece remained. Soon after the fall event John Higgins in collaboration with Mahamad Nur Ogle acquired a total of 10.122 kg of material, and independently Michael Farmer obtained a total of 9.3 kg of material.

Physical characteristics: The total weight of recovered material is estimated to be ~25 kg. The most complete stones are largely coated by black fusion crust. Their interiors and the broken fragments are light gray in color with a crystalline ("sugary") appearance and visible fresh metal grains. Some stones exhibit rare very thin, black shock veinlets.

Petrography: (A. Irving, UWS and P. Carpenter, WUSL) Very sparse chondrules and partial chondrules occur within a recrystallized, locally poikiloblastic matrix containing unaltered kamacite, taenite, chromite, troilite and chlorapatite. A single 5 mm fine-grained type 7 clast exhibiting complete recrystallization and triple grain junction texture is present in the studied thin section.

Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa24.8±0.1, range Fa24.7-25.0, N = 5), low-Ca pyroxene (Fs21.0±0.2Wo1.6±0.1, range Fs20.7-21.2Wo1.4-1.8, N = 5), augite (Fs8.2±0.2Wo44.5±0.3, range Fs8.1-8.4Wo44.3-44.9, N = 3), plagioclase (Ab84.0±0.7An10.2±0.4Or5.7±0.4, range Ab83.3-84.6An10.5-9.8Or6.2-5.4, N = 3), chromite (Cr1.56Fe0.91Al0.24Mg0.12Ti0.08). Magnetic suscpetibility log χ (× 10-9 m3/kg) = 4.71.

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (L6).

Specimens: 27.5 g including one polished thin section and one polished mount at UWB; 62 g at ASU; 10.1 kg including 6140 g main mass with Mr. J. Higgins; 9.3 kg with Farmer.

Data from:
  MB109
  Table 0
  Line 0:
State/Prov/County:Central
Origin or pseudonym:Gatuto, Kombuini, Kimicha
Date:2020 Apr 24
Latitude:0.570°S
Longitude:37.29°E
Mass (g):~25000
Pieces:several
Class:L6
Shock stage:S2
Weathering grade:W0
Fayalite (mol%):24.8±0.1 (n=5)
Ferrosilite (mol%):21.0±0.2 (n=5)
Wollastonite (mol%):1.6±0.1
Magnetic suscept.:4.71
Classifier:A. Irving, UWS, and P. Carpenter, WUSL
Type spec mass (g):89.5
Type spec location:UWB/ASU
Main mass:J. Higgins
Finder:J. Kakere/M. Wamburu/M. Nur Ogle
Comments:Work name JH20-3; submitted by A. Irving
Institutions
   and collections
ASU: Center for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1404, United States; Website (institutional address; updated 14 Jan 2012)
UWS: University of Washington, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, 70 Johnson Hall, Seattle, WA 98195, United States (institutional address; updated 15 Jan 2012)
WUSL: Washington Univ., One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States (institutional address; updated 17 Oct 2011)
UWB: University of Washington, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Box 353010 Seattle, WA 98195, United States (institutional address; updated 9 Oct 2023)
Catalogs:
References: Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 109, in preparation (2020)
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CreditPhotos
Photos uploaded by members of the Encyclopedia of Meteorites.
    (Caution, these are of unknown reliability)
chen wang   
Dave Johnson   
Kenneth Alvarez Castillo   
Geography:

Kenya
Coordinates:
     Recommended::   (0° 34' 12"S, 37° 17' 24"E)

Statistics:
     This is 1 of 2 approved meteorites from Central, Kenya
     This is 1 of 13 approved meteorites from Kenya (plus 1 unapproved name)
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