Saint-Ouen-en-Champagne        47°57’51’’N, 0°9’40’’W

Pays de la Loire, France

Probable fall: 29 Sep 1799

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H5)

History: A 12 g sample labelled as Saint-Ouen-en-Champagne discovered in the Chadel collection in 2006 drew the attention of the meteoritical community on another, homonymous 39 g sample curated in LeMans, in the département of the eponymous commune. The curator Nicolas Morel found in the local learned literature several mentions of this fall, which occurred after a violent thunder clap on September 29, 1799, at 3 pm, in the farm Le Pin in Saint-Ouen-en-Champagne. The stone, which weighed 9 pounds 7 ounces, fell at the feet of a day laborer and was at first too hot to touch. It was subsequently divided among several naturalists, but only 51 g are currently extant.

Physical characteristics: fragment dull gray in color, studded with minuscule metallic grains, partly covered by a blackish/brown fusion crust

Petrography (T. Shisseh, FSAC and S. Pont, MNHP): Polished section showing typical chondrite texture with moderate number of chondrules and abundant scattered metal. Fusion crust is up to 0.75 mm locally with abundant vesicles up to 100 μm. Chondrules are up to 1 mm and rarely 2 mm. Many have well-defined borders and other do not. Chondrules types are porphyritic olivine-pyroxene (POP), barred olivine (BO), granular olivine-pyroxene (GOP) and possible remnant radiating pyroxene chondrules (RP). Olivine and orthopyroxene are the dominant phases with minor chromite, Ca-pyroxene, apatite and troilite. Metal and sulfides are interstitial to olivine and pyroxene and clustered in the form of large anhedral grains enclosing silicates. Few silicates are embedded in metal. No nodule-shaped metal was observed.

Geochemistry: Mineral composition and geochemistry (T. Shisseh, H. Chennaoui Aoudjehane, FSAC): Olivine Fa_18.22±0.21 (N=12) Opx = En₈₂Fs₁₆Wo₂ (N=3) Clinopyroxene= En₄₈ Fs₆ Wo₄₆ (N=1) and En₇₅ Fs₁₅ Wo₈ (N=2). Plagioclase is Ab_80-83 An_12-16 Or_4-5. Chromite compositions are Cr/(Cr+Al)=0.91 and Fe/(Fe+Mg)=0.9 (N=3). Kamacite with 6% Ni.

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H5)

Specimens: 38 g, LeMans, type specimen; 12 g, A. Carion; 1 g, MNHNP