The British and Irish Meteorite Society

Hi all,

I've added a new page to my historic meteorite pages concerning Hoba:

http://historicfalls.com/20th-century/hoba/

Some nice original images and interesting accounts ("The very successful excursion to South-West Africa organized by the International Geological Congress in 1929 ended on September 5 with a visit from Tsumeb to the Abenab vanadium mine and the large meteorite near Grootfontein. Here the party (a small one, as one motor-car broke down on the way, and the majority of the members had elected to visit the game reserve round the Etosha Pan) was conducted by Mr W R Feldtmann")

Mark

Mark, I just looked up a few facts on Hoba, I notice that the single mass shown in most pictures is estimated at 60 Tons! That is pretty dense when you look at the size of it. It has been unfortunately vandalised over the past few years, has any protection been put into place?

Nope, the modern photo at the top of the piece is only a few years old. As you can see they've just dug down and added some seating. It may have a fence or some such.

I think it's interesting that even back when it was found, people were complaining about it being vandalised by oxyacetylene torches - the same people who later used them to try to remove fragments

It's also interesting that nobody actually knows how much it weighs. 60 tons is based on a volumetric estimate of the thing, multiplied by the (measured) density. It assumes that it's constant throughout, and takes no account of shale etc. It's clearly never been weighed - even today there are few scales big enough to do the job.

Nice article Mark. I have always wanted to have a piece in my collection and just recently acquired the piece below. Its a Shale piece weighing 8.787g

Interesting. The L J Spencer on your BM COA is the author of the article!

Also interesting that it's a different accession number from the one mentioned in the article - that one (BM 1930,976) was a solid piece, yours likely comes from the shale specimen he refers to in the article also

I also have a little Hoba shale somewhere I think...

M

In fact, I might use that photo in the article if you don't mind Martin?

No probs at all Mark, please use it if you wish. I need to speak to my Gran about whether she has any photos of their visit there about 35 years ago. She mentioned to me a few years ago after finding out about my interest that they had visited but couldnt locate any photos. I will ask again when i am down visiting in June.

Cheers

Martin