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www.niger-meteorite-recon.de
Bassikounou Meteorite Fall
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Maps & Appendix
By Svend Buhl & Matthias Baermann
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Local coverage
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Impact marks and adherent clay soil on a 495gm fragment
collected south of Oum Sdeira (cat # 026). NMR scalecube is 1cm
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In the early morning of October 22 and in the shape
of a press release of the official Mauritanian press
agency Agence Mauritanienne d’Information the first official
statement on the meteorite fall was issued. The ten line
report was headlined “Chute d'un corps lumineux aux environs
de la ville de Basseknou” or “Fall of a luminous body in
the area of the village of Basseknou”. This report was
multiplied also by several radio stations via short wave
the same evening.
After the broadcasting of the report the
editorial department of the AMI was flooded with
calls of locals who requested additional information
on the event. These callers were told that a government
investigation is proceeding. Via the Mauritanian embassy
in Berlin the authors tried to learn more about this
investigation and offered to share their sources and
the information obtained. Until present the Mauritanian
embassy did not reply.
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Title page with Bassikounou-teaser and story on page 4 of Horizons,
Nouakchott, published on October 25, 2006.
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Three days after the first press release
on October 25, the very same report with
the omission of three words only was published
in Horizons which is the leading Mauritanian
newspaper based in Nouakchott. A teaser on the
title page announced “BASSIKNOU : Chute d'un
corps lumineux”. The article mentions the fireball
of October 16, the observations from the Dhar al
Nema area and the recovery of material through the
Army on the morning of October 16. It also claims
that parts of the impacting meteorite produced a
large chasm in which remains of the meteorite have
been found as well.
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The author's local correspondent Mohamed Yahya being rewarded
by the ambassador of the US in Nouakchot Charles H. Twining
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As expected no confirmation on this
particular impact structure could be obtained
from the author’s communication with locals
in Bassikounou and the surrounding area. It
must be assumed that the chasm mentioned was a
geologic or artificial structure prior to the
meteorite fall and that meteorite fragments
fell on it coincidentally.
Travellers passing through the area learned that an
impact pit was found from which fragments of a total weight of
10kg have been recovered. Because it was also reported
that the Army visited this location and excavated another
300gm it is possible that the chasm mentioned above was in
fact this impact pit.
It might as well be assumed that the original report
to Agence Mauritanienne d’Information was
already affected by local superstition and
imagination. Many of the eyewitnesses interviewed
claimed divine or satanic activity responsible for
the event and more than once the “upcoming doomsday”
or the “opening of the earth’s surface” and the “gates
of hell” were brought in correlation with the meteorite
fall.
Recovery of the masses
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M. Zeroual (left) with the finder of the 6.120kg main
mass (middle). Unfortunately we do not know the boy's name. Photo courtesy of M. Zeroual.
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In the early morning after the fall detachments of the
Mauritanian Army stationed at the nearby border to Mali
arrived at the stage and seized an unknown number of meteorites
collected by the locals. This happened at Umm Sdeira and in a
number of settlements along the southern piste from Umm Sdeira
to Bassikounou. It is most likely that these detachments did
collect meteorites as well. After the news of the black stones
that fell from the skies had spread people arrived as far as from
Koussana to search for them.
Neither the locals nor the Army kept records on the find
locations of the masses collected. Adherent soil and mass
distribution are therefore the only indications for a
reconstruction of the distribution pattern and the relative
find positions within the strewn field.
The locals in the strewn field area soon started to market their
cosmic harvest: "I was in Bassiknou city during the meteorite
fall last year, but a friend of mine brought to me some
fragments of the rocks that rained down that night. At this
time they were already being sold to tourists.
The majority of the pieces I saw were absolutely
black and only few were colourful. When you look
carefully at them you will find out that they are not
normal stones", Mohamed, the Imam of the Bassiknou mosque explained.
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Five masses collected in the days after the fall.
From left to right 1304gm (cat # 011); 495gm
(cat # 026); 308gm (cat # 045); 860gm (cat # 013)
and 91gm (cat # 048). NMR scalecube is 1cm
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The strewn field
In a distance of 18.5 kilometres north-east of Bassikounou is
the well Mousdéré or “Oume, "Oum" or "Umm Sdeira” in Arab.
At the time of the fall a number of temporary nomad camps
were spread around the well. Residents of these camps told
the author’s correspondent Mohamed Yahya that they were alarmed
by the fireballs and a deafening series of thunders that made the ground
shake. Then they heard a hissing sound and several masses impacting in the closer
surrounding with sudden thuds. Fortunately no one got injured. “In the early
morning at about 06:00 AM they hurried to the direction of the
impact sounds and found several remains of the meteorite that fell
apart along the village.”
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Because at least four larger masses than the EL
Moichine mass (position 1) have been recovered one must assume
that the strewn field expands further southwards.
Most probably even further than the defensive calculation of 2 kilometres marked by
the red outline of the distribution ellipse
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At the same day at 13:00 hrs local resident Mr. Ahmed
Salem El Moichine found a single stone of 3165 gm 11 km
south-east of Bassikounou. Coordinates for this find
location are given with 15° 47’ N 5° 54’ W. Both points,
Umm Sdeira and the find location of the El Moichine mass
suggest a strewn field axis of 210° in south by south-westerly
orientation. The find location of the El Moichine mass plots
in an area with red sandstone bedrock which explains the distinct
red-orange impact marks on this mass.
Because at least four larger masses than the EL
Moichine mass have been recovered one must assume
that the strewn field expands well beyond the find
location of the 3.165 kg mass. As no further find
coordinates have been reported
one can say that the strewn field axis extends over
a minimum distance of 23 kilometres.
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Maps & Appendix
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