Gao-Guenie H5 Meteorite, 1960 Burkina, Africa Fall 14g

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GAO GUENIE METEORITE FROM 1960 FALL Gao and Guenie are two villages, south of Burkina, near the Ghana border in Africa. On March 5th, 1960, stones fell from the sky onto the rooftops of the local inhabitants in this region. The Chief of the Gao village remembers it well. Because of the reports that came with the meteorite's arrival. Many of the villagers thought the stones were from military explosives. Trees and henhouses were hit and destroyed by the falling meteorites, some of the meteorites made small craters in the fields, while others bounced on the ground. As far as Leo, 70km. away, the meteor could be heard. 1000's of meteorites were recovered, some of them appearing a little different. These stones were more shocked, had a darker matrix, the occurence of veins, had large metallic nodules and appeared to have a different chondrule ratio. Dark clasts of different kinds has also been identified in this meteorite. A fine-grained chondrule free material, a black chondrite and melt clasts for examples. For several years, these meteorite were split into two versions. Gao or Upper Volta and Guenie. Many meteorite dealers could even show you the difference in the two stones, however, many also wondered if t was in fact two falls. That was until 1988, when a scientific paper proved that the two meteorites w indistinguishable from each other and most likely only one fall. The Nomenclature Meteorite Committee then merged these 2 names into one...Gao-Guenie. "These H4-5 microbreccias underwent a complex mixing history and possibly a complex irradiation history." Although Guenie was classified as a H4, and Gao a H5 stone chondrite, a classification of H5 has been accepted for this meteorite. L. Moore, G. Flynn and W. Klock (1999) determined the volume of Gao-Fuenie to be 8.64 cc +/- 0.04 and a grain density of 3.67/- 0.02 gm/cc. The above photo is a thin section of the Gao-Guenie Meteorite that is in my collection. Thin sections are used in earth geology, and in meteorites to identify the minerals in them. Stone meteorites are made of mostly olivine and pyroxene. The pyroxene is typically greyish or yellowish and the bright colored minerals scattered throughout the photo are mostly olivine. A complete slice of the Gao-Guenie meteorite, not included with this auction, shows the busy matrix inside this meteorite. The Gao-Guenie meteorite you are bidding on, shown below, is a complete individual as found. This meteorite weighs 14.0 grams. Meteorite will come with a (signed) description card. Meteorite is Unconditionally Guaranteed as to its Authenticity. This is a REAL extraterrestrial rock from Outer Space. Great gift for that planetary science - astronomy fan - child of yours and a nice addition to a mineral - geology - collection. US & APO shipping is $2.50. Canada & Mexico $3.00. Elsew $5.00. $0.50 each additional small item. Flat and non-flat items ship separate. Multiple purchases should e-mail for grand total. Check (US Only please), Money Order, or Credit and Debit cards with Pay Pal. You can pay by Pay Pal by clicking the gray Pay Pal button at the bottom of the auction. I do combine shipping if you win more then one auction please e-mail me for a combined total. I only ask that you pay for all auctions in one payment. Be sure to add me to your favorites list ! To view more meteorite auctions, as well as the meteorites in my eBay store, click on the "Meteorites" link above or use the search engine. To see ALL of my auctions click "view sellers other items" under my user name. For more information about me, click the "me" beside my user name and feedback. INTERNATIONAL METEORITE COLLECTORS ASSOCIATION Authenticity GUARANTEED * Click the image Know who you buy your meteorites from! I am a member of the International Meteorite Collectors Association (#3166), a founding member of the Kansas Meteorite Society (a non-profit organization) and have authored articles for Voyage! Meteorite & Space Events magazine, Meteorite and Meteorite Magazine. What does all that ... read more

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