There are currently over 72,000 documented meteorites globally, weighing approximately 700 tonnes, according to the Meteoritical Society.
The latest (2022 and beyond) discoveries of meteors and encounters on the African continent are fascinating.
Authors of a research paper (Lahcen Ouknine, Giorgio S Senesi, Fouad Khiri and Abderrahmane Ibhi, 2023) say Africa makes up about 1/6 of all meteorites recovered from the entire world.
The composition of African meteorite population includes Martian meteorites (62%), Ureilites (51%), Rumuruti (59%), Lunar (47%), and HED (46%).
Somalia
Last year a team of researchers from the University of Alberta, discovered 2 new minerals that were never seen on earth before, from The El Ali meteorite or Ceel Cali in Somalia.
The Meteorite in Somalia is the the ninth largest ever found, and weighs about 15 tonnes.
The two minerals found came from a single 70 gram slice that was sent to the U of A for classification, and there already appears to be a potential third mineral under consideration, according to Chris Herd, Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and curator of the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection.
South Africa
The Vredefort Dome in South Africa is located on the south west of Johannesburg.
The property is one of the oldest in the world dating back as far as 2 023 million years ago.
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) announced the discovery of 2 new meteorites last September 2023, by a South African farmer, Gideon Lombard, in the Northern Cape.
According to Wits, the Brierskop meteorite weighs 21.19 g and the Wolfkop stone, is larger, weighing about 90.26 g.
Pictures :EOS.org & University of Alberta