The Ardón L6 ordinary chondrite: A long‐hidden Spanish meteorite fall

Abstract

Abstract-We report and describe an L6 ordinary chondrite fall that occurred in Ard on, Le on province, Spain (longitude 5.5605°W, latitude 42.4364°N) on July 9th, 1931. The 5.5 g single stone was kept hidden for 83 yr by Rosa Gonz alez P erez, at the time an 11 yr old who had observed the fall and had recovered the meteorite. According to various newspaper reports, the event was widely observed in Northern Spain. Ard on is a very well-preserved, fresh, strongly metamorphosed (petrologic type 6), and weakly shocked (S3) ordinary chondrite with well-equilibrated and recrystallized minerals. Ne ratio indicates that preatmospheric Ard on was a relatively large body. The fact that the meteorite was hidden in private hands for 83 yr makes one wonder if other meteorite falls may have experienced the same fate, thus possibly explaining the anomalously low number of falls reported in continental Spain in the 20th century.

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