header
  MetSoc Home            Publications            Contacts  
Search the Meteoritical Bulletin Database
Last update: 12 Mar 2024
Search for: Search type: Search limits: Display: Publication:
Names
Text help
Places
Classes
Years
Contains
Starts with
Exact
Sounds like
NonAntarctic
Falls  Non-NWAs
What's new
  in the last:
Limit to approved meteorite names
Search text:
 
Balambala
Basic information Name: Balambala
     This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name.
Abbreviation: There is no official abbreviation for this meteorite.
Observed fall: No
Year found: 2018
Country: Kenya
Mass:help 60.5 kg
Classification
  history:
Meteoritical Bulletin:  MB 109  (2020)  Iron, IIF
Recommended:  Iron, IIF    [explanation]

This is 1 of 8 approved meteorites classified as Iron, IIF.   [show all]
Search for other: IIF irons, Iron meteorites, and Metal-rich meteorites
Comments: Approved 2 Aug 2020
Writeuphelp
Writeup from MB 109:

Balambala        0°3.555’N, 39°6.45’E

North-Eastern, Kenya

Find: 2018 Jan

Classification: Iron meteorite (IIF)

History: Dhagax Bir is the name attributed to the meteorite by the region’s goat herders; the name means metal stone in the local spoken Somali dialect. According to the local residents the meteorite was in this location for as long as anyone could remember, including a woman 60 years of age who regularly herded goats past this stone since she was 10 years old. In January 2018, a nomad identified the stone as an iron meteorite, and then brought it to a local broker in the nearest city of Garissa. The broker began circulating photos and it was subsequently purchased by Mahamed Nur Ogle and John Higgins.

Physical characteristics: The single, approximately shield-shaped mass is about 33 × 41 cm in width and 10-15 cm thick. It is covered in large (~5 cm-wide) regmaglypts; a few cm-sized spherical holes are also present on one side. Some rust is present on the top surface, but otherwise, there is little evidence of oxidation.

Petrography: (C. Herd and L. Tunney, UAb) Optical investigation of a 4.5 × 6 cm polished and etched end slice reveals cm-scale rounded troilite inclusions, and lath-like (~1 × 8 mm) schreibersite inclusions, both swathed in kamacite. The bulk of the meteorite consists of kamacite spindles in a matrix of taenite. The spindles occur evenly throughout, except for adjacent to inclusions, where ~500 μm-wide spindle-poor regions are surrounded by ~200 μm-wide spindle-rich rings that broadly parallel the outlines of the inclusions. SEM investigation reveals that larger kamacite spindles or groupings of spindles are often cored by 50-100 μm subequant schreibersite crystals. The average kamacite bandwidth is 53±17 μm (n=36). Taenite is zoned to higher Ni adjacent to kamacite spindles. No alteration was observed.

Geochemistry: (C. Herd, L. Tunney, and G. Chen, UAb) ICP-MS data, using sample of North Chile (Filomena) as standard: Ni = 13.0, Co = 0.67 (both wt%); Ir = 5.2, Ge = 223, Ga = 8.1, As = 20.6, W = 0.76, Re = 0.45, Pt = 14.9, Cu = 208, Au = 2.6 (all µg/g).

Classification: Iron, IIF, based on the high Ge/Ga ratio, high Co content, and fit with regression parameters established by Kracher et al. (1980).

Specimens: Type specimen of 261 g at UAb. Main mass with Mahamed Nur Ogle and J. Higgins.

Data from:
  MB109
  Table 0
  Line 0:
State/Prov/County:North-Eastern
Date:2018 Jan
Latitude:0°3.555'N
Longitude:39°6.45'E
Mass (g):97000
Pieces:1
Class:Iron, IIF
Shock stage:low
Weathering grade:low
Classifier:C. Herd and L. Tunney, UAb
Type spec mass (g):261
Type spec location:UAb
Main mass:Mahamed Nur Ogle
Comments:Submitted by C. Herd
Institutions
   and collections
UAb: 1-26 Earth Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada, Canada; Website (institutional address; updated 17 Oct 2011)
Catalogs:
References: Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 109, in preparation (2020)
Find references in NASA ADS:
Find references in Google Scholar:
Photos:
CreditPhotos
Photos uploaded by members of the Encyclopedia of Meteorites.
    (Caution, these are of unknown reliability)
chen wang   
Dirk Hohmann   
Guchen Chen      
Jingyu Tan   
Geography:

Kenya
Coordinates:
     Recommended::   (0° 3' 33"N, 39° 6' 27"E)

Statistics:
     This is 1 of 5 approved meteorites from North-Eastern, Kenya
     This is 1 of 13 approved meteorites from Kenya (plus 1 unapproved name)
Proximity search:
Find nearby meteorites: enter search radius (km):
Crosslinks:
Also see:
  This lists the most popular meteorites among people who looked up this meteorite.
Revision
  history:
  This lists important revisions made to data for this record.

Direct link to this page