Žemaitkiemis meteorite is an

ordinary chondrite The ordinary chondrites (sometimes called the O chondrites) are a class of stony chondritic meteorites. They are by far the most numerous group, comprising 87% of all finds. Hence, they have been dubbed "ordinary". The ordinary chondrites are t ...

that fell near

Žemaitkiemis Žemaitkiemis (literally: ''Garden of Samogitians'') is a town in Ukmergė district, Lithuania. It is located north-east of Ukmergė. The Neo-Baroque Neo-Baroque may refer to: * Neo-Baroque music * Neo-Baroque painting, a painting style use ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

at about 8:33 pm on 2 February 1933. Using the

argon–argon dating Argon–argon (or 40Ar/39Ar) dating is a radiometric dating method invented to supersede Potassium-argon dating, potassiumargon (K/Ar) dating in accuracy. The older method required splitting samples into two for separate potassium and argon measur ...

method, scientists have calculated its age to be about 520 million years. The fall was observed by the

Koenigsberg Observatory Koenigsberg Observatory (; obs. code: 058) was an astronomical observatory and research facility which was attached to the Albertina University in Königsberg, what is now Kaliningrad, Russia. The observatory was destroyed by Royal Air Force ...

. Since the meteorite fell near inhabited areas during winter, it was rather easy to locate the fragments in the snow. In total, 20 fragments with a combined weight of were collected and donated to the

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) (, VDU) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was known as the University of Lithuania, but ...

. The largest pieces weighted . Two other fragments were gifted later – and – to the Institute of Geology and Geography in Vilnius. There were also reports of a fragment found about from Žemaitkiemis in 1938. More pieces likely fell into the or were kept by the locals. The main mass, two largest fragments and 13 other fragments, are held by the Geology Museum of

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

. Other fragments are held by: by the National Museum in Prague, by the

Russian Academy of Science The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

, by the

Natural History Museum in London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and ...

, by the

National Museum of Natural History in Paris The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

, by the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

in Chicago, by the

Geological Survey of Canada The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC; , CGC) is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the environment. A branch of the Earth Science ...

, and others. On 14 July 2017, President

Dalia Grybauskaitė Dalia Grybauskaitė (; born 1 March 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who served as the eighth president of Lithuania from 2009 to 2019. She is the first and so far only woman to hold the position and in 2014 she became the first President of Li ...

approved a coat of arms of

that features the meteorite fall.

References

External links

Photo of 5.4 kg fragment

Zemaitkiemis at wiki.Meteoritica.pl (in Polish)

Zemaitkiemis at the Meteoritical Bulletin Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zemaitkiemis February 1933 1933 in Lithuania 1933 in science Meteorites found in Lithuania