Mbozi is an ungrouped

iron meteorite Iron meteorites, also known as siderites, or ferrous meteorites, are a type of meteorite that consist overwhelmingly of an iron–nickel alloy known as meteoric iron that usually consists of two mineral phases: kamacite and taenite. Most iron met ...

found in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

. It is one of the world's largest

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

s, variously estimated as the fourth-largest to the eighth-largest, it is located near the city of Mbeya in Tanzania's southern highlands. The meteorite is long, high, and weighs an estimated .

Discovery and naming

Mbozi has been long known to locals, who call it ''kimondo'', yet became known to outsiders only in the 1930s. It is named after

Mbozi District Mbozi District is a district in Songwe Region, Tanzania. It is bordered to the north by Chunya District, to the east by Mbeya Urban and Ileje Districts, to the south by Zambia and to the west by Rukwa Region. According to the 2002 Tanzania Natio ...

, in Mbeya (

). When it was discovered by scientists in 1930 it didn't have a crater.Seven Most Massive Single Meteorite Fragments on Earth

Mineralogy

Mbozi consists of meteoric iron with small

silicate In chemistry, a silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is al ...

inclusions. The meteoric iron has a nickel concentration of 8% and shows Widmanstätten pattern. The

Germanium Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid in the carbon group that is chemically similar to its group neighbors s ...

Gallium Gallium is a chemical element with the symbol Ga and atomic number 31. Discovered by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, Gallium is in group 13 of the periodic table and is similar to the other metals of the group (aluminiu ...

ratio is larger than 10, which can also be seen in meteorites of the IIF iron meteorite group and the Eagle station

pallasite The pallasites are a class of stony–iron meteorite. Structure and composition It consists of centimetre-sized olivine crystals of peridot quality in an iron-nickel matrix. Coarser metal areas develop Widmanstätten patterns upon etching. Mino ...

s. The

inclusions have a core and mantle structure in thin section. The mantle is made from glass, that partially devitrified into

pyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...

and plagioclase. The core consists of quartz.

Classification

Currently classified as an ungrouped

Mbozi shows similarities with IIF iron meteorites, the Eagle station

s and a few other ungrouped iron meteorite (e.g. Bocaiuva meteorite).

External links

Largest meteorites

Images

References

{{Meteorites by name Meteorites found in Tanzania

Discovery and naming

Mineralogy

Classification

See also

External links

References