Ad Damer        17°50.12’N, 33° 50.53’E

Ash Shamaliyah, Sudan

Find: 2019

Classification: Iron meteorite (IAB complex)

History: The meteorite was found in 2019 at 22 km to NW from the Atbara town, near the Ad Damer village, Sudan, by Mr. Hussain Yousif Hussain Ahmed.

Physical characteristics: The meteorite has a shape of flattened chunk of metal of palm size and 1307 g of total weight. One side of the meteorite has a relief resembling to the regmaglypts. The surface is patchy brown to dark reddish brown.

Petrography: The meteorite has fine-grained texture mostly formed by discontinuous kamacite bands of 10-30 um in width spaced by taenite areas of ~5 um in width. The pleccitic islands rounded by taenite rims and polygonal crystals of shreibersite are irregularly distributed between the kamacite bands of the main mass. Accessory troilite occurs in sub-um symplectic intergrowth with kamacite and taenite located at central parts of large kamacite bands and sometime associated with large shreibersite crystals. The meteorite main mass contains single kamacite bands of 40 um in width and 100-200 um in length and minor patches of micro-widmanstätten texture. At places the long kamacite bands have Z-like deformed morphology. One of the widmanstätten patches has medium-grained texture formed by kamacite bands of 100 um in width and up to 5 mm in length with plessitic interstitions similar to the main mass of the meteorite.

Geochemistry: Mineral composition and geochemistry: Bulk composition (Gromyak I. and Dogadkin D., Vernad., ICP AS, MS, MERK multielement standards, Gebel Kamil iron as unknown internal standard; N=3 analyses; all in ppm): Ni 92800±0.3; Co 5200±200; Ga 26.9±3; Ge 77.5±3; W 0.77±0.04; Au 1.27±0.04; Ir 1.2±0.02

Classification: Based on the kamacite bandwidth, bulk Ni concentration and siderophile elements distribution the meteorite was classified as iron plessitic octahedrite (Opl) of chemical group IAB.

Specimens: A type specimen of 260.5 g total weight (cut piece of 235.6 g and two cut slices (10.45 and 14.49 g), and polished section are on deposit at Vernad. Finder keeps the main mass.