Orconuma        12° 38' 53"N,  121° 31' 19"E

Southern Tagalog, Philippines

Confirmed fall: 2011

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H3-4)

History: (J. Higgins) On the clear sunny morning of March 7, 2011, three farmers (Fredo Manzano, Edgar Francisco Senior and Enrico Camacho Junior) in Orconuma, Bongabonga, Philippines, were clearing brush in the field when they were startled by six consecutive loud explosions. The noise from the explosions seemed to last for up to half a minute. At first they thought it was thunder because the ground was shaking. Looking up to the sky they witnessed a "red burning object with sparks coming off," leaving a heavy smoke trail and making a distinctive whistling sound before they saw it impact the ground. By their own admission the farmers thought at first it was a bomb and considered this to be perhaps "the end of the world." They recall that the birds flew away at once from the sounds of the explosions. They went to investigate, and within less than 10 m they found a hole in the ground surrounded by disturbed soil and what looked like burnt grass. Inside the hole about 1 m down they saw a stony object, and lacking tools they used a piece of wood laying nearby and their bare hands to dig it out. Not knowing what this strange rock was they started asking around, and showing the stone to local people, but then became worried someone may try to take it from them. This fear led them to wrap it up in a sealed plastic container before burying it underground for a year. They finally decided nobody was coming for it, so they excavated the stone and stored it in Fredo Manzano’s closet for the next 8 years. In 2020 they were interviewed for a local television news show (later posted on YouTube with over 5 million views), and during the filming the stone was examined visually by geologist Jocelyn Villanueva, who concluded that it might be a type of basaltic volcanic rock. The farmers, however, still had faith that it could be a meteorite, and hired Ramelle Baquil Ramirez to help them find a buyer. Subsequently in April 2021, with the assistance of an experienced tektite dealer (Carmelita Cepe), the stone was acquired jointly by John Higgins and Jasper Spencer.

Physical characteristics: A single ellipsoidal, dense stone (7800 g) with a regmaglypted exterior coated by dark fusion crust. Minor staining of some metal is evident in cut pieces from near the exterior surface of the stone.

Petrography: (A. Irving, UWS and P. Carpenter, WUSL; A. Love, App) Breccia composed of discrete relatively small, well-formed, glass-bearing unequilibrated chondrules (apparent diameter 440±330 µm, N = 25), plus Type 3 and Type 4 lithic clasts and sparse ferroan olivine fragments, set in a finer grained matrix containing relatively abundant kamacite with subordinate taenite, troilite, low-Ti chromite and chlorapatite. The lithic clasts variously contain either unequilibrated or equilibrated chondrules plus either glass or sodic plagioclase. Much of the kamacite in the studied thin section is unaltered but some is now stained by secondary iron hydroxides.

Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa_19.7±8.3, range Fa_8.1-34.0, N = 8; Cr₂O₃ in ferroan olivine 0.01-0.07 wt.%, mean 0.03±0.02 wt.%, N = 5), low-Ca pyroxene (Fs_12.3±5.7Wo_0.4±0.2, range Fs_4.7-17.3Wo_0.3-0.7, N = 4), pigeonite (Fs_13.7Wo_11.0), augite (Fs_7.7Wo_35.4; Fs_6.9Wo_44.1; N = 2), ferroan olivine fragment (Fa_34.0). Magnetic susceptibility log χ (× 10^-9 m³/kg) = 5.38.

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H3-4 breccia).

Specimens: 56.9 including one polished thin section at UWB; 32.5 g plus one polished thin section at App; remainder with Mr. J. Higgins and Mr. J. Spencer.