Named the Gancedo meteorite after the nearby town of Gancedo, which lent equipment to aid in the extraction, this nickel-iron meteorite has a mass of 30,800 kilograms (67,900 lb) (less than the original estimated mass of El Chaco). In 2016, the largest-known meteorite of the strewn field was unearthed. In 2015, police arrested four alleged smugglers trying to steal more than 907 kilograms (2,000 lb) of protected meteorites. It was returned to Campo del Cielo and is now protected by provincial law. In 1990 an Argentine highway police officer foiled a plot by Robert Haag to steal El Chaco. Currently, more than 100 tonnes of Campo del Cielo fragments have been discovered, making it the heaviest set of such finds on Earth. This made it the second heaviest meteorite after the 60-tonne Hoba meteorite, discovered in Namibia. It was extracted in 1980 and, at the time, was estimated to weigh about 37 tonnes. In 1969 El Chaco (the second-largest mass at 28,840 kilograms (63,580 lb)) was discovered 5 metres (16 ft) below the surface using a metal detector. The mass called El Taco was originally 3,090 kilograms (6,810 lb), but the largest remaining fragment weighs 1,998 kilograms (4,405 lb). Other large fragments are summarized in the table below. A 634-kilogram (1,398 lb) portion of this mass was taken to Buenos Aires in 1813, then donated to the British Museum. Otumpa, a mass of approximately 1 tonne, was discovered in 1803. ![]() Since the crater field's discovery, hundreds iron pieces have been recovered, weighing from a few milligrams to 34 tonnes. Those samples were later analyzed and found to contain 90% iron and 10% nickel they were assigned to a meteoritic origin. However, he sent samples to the Royal Society in London and published his report in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. He believed that it had formed by a volcanic eruption, rather than being a meteorite. Celis estimated its mass as 15 tonnes and abandoned it as worthless. The next expedition, led by Rubin de Celis in 1783, used explosives to clear the ground around the mass and found that it was likely a single stone. Maguna believed that the mass was the tip of an iron vein. The governor documented the expedition and submitted the report to the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain, but it was quickly forgotten and later reports merely repeated the native legends.įollowing the legends, in 1774 Don Bartolomé Francisco de Maguna rediscovered the iron mass which he called el Mesón de Fierro ("the Table of Iron"). The expedition found a large mass of metal protruding out of the soil and collected a few samples, which were described as being of unusual purity. The natives claimed that the mass had fallen from the sky in a place they called Piguem Nonralta, which the Spanish translated as Campo del Cielo ("Field of heaven (or the sky)"). In 1576, the governor of a province in northern Argentina commissioned the military to search for a huge mass of iron, which he had heard that natives used for their weapons. The two largest fragments, the 30.8-tonne Gancedo and 28.8-tonne El Chaco, are among the heaviest single-piece meteorite masses recovered on Earth, following the 60-tonne Hoba meteorite and a 31-tonne fragment of the Cape York meteorite.Ĭampo del Cielo iron meteorite with natural hole, 576 gramsĬhaco Province and Santiago del Estero ProvinceĢ7☃8′S 61☄2′W / 27.633°S 61.700°W / -27.633 -61.700 In total, approximately 100 tonnes of fragments have been recovered, the most of any meteorite find. The craters and surrounding areas contain many fragments of an iron meteorite. They were reported to the general public in 1576, but were already well-known by aboriginal peoples. The craters are estimated to be four to five thousand years old. The crater field covers 18.5 by 3 kilometres (11.5 by 1.9 mi) and contains at least 26 craters, the largest being 115 by 91 metres (377 by 299 ft). The site straddles the provinces of Chaco and Santiago del Estero, located 1,000 kilometers (620 mi) north-northwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina and approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) southwest of Asunción, Paraguay. ![]() ![]() Location of the craters in Chaco Province, ArgentinaĬampo del Cielo refers to a group of iron meteorites and the area in Argentina where they were found.
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