Aiquile, H5

On November 20, 2016, a bright daytime fireball split the sky above Aiquile, Bolivia.  A local named Hugo Cardona quickly snagged a photo of the ‘smoke’ trail – vaporized rock – it left in the sky.

Moments later, a 36 kilogram stone fell a few hundred meters from Calledonio Vizaga.

The main mass was taken to a local museum where it was placed on display along with a few other stones.

ATB Media produced two videos on the fall:

 

This 442 gram oriented nose-cone came from Alfredo Petrov.  It is one of the larger stones I’ve seen from the fall.  It is also hands-down the prettiest.  Thick flow lines, froth, an iridescent trailing face, and a unique side of yellow, bubbly, tertiary crust covering a late atmospheric break make this one of the more interesting ordinary chondrite individuals I’ve seen.  You can see just how the molten material was getting stripped off of the front of the stone and spattering over the rear.

This side is also interesting.  On the broken face, the thin fusion crust is patchy, and only occurs on the sides angled towards the front of the stone as it was moving through the atmosphere.  The sides that were angled away from the front of the stone have no crust on them.  This was a very late atmospheric break: