Kilabo Meteorite — 20th Anniversary Of Landing On Earth

Exactly twenty years ago at 7:30 PM on July 21, 2002 a brilliant fireball was seen streaking over the skies of Nigeria. Several minutes later two loud detonations were widely heard. Shortly thereafter Mallam Audu and several of his neighbors in the village of Kilabo, just a few miles south of the border with Niger, heard a stone fall and recovered it. All told, nearly 20 kilograms of material was found in five different villages in the region. Kilabo’s L6 classification indicates that it is low in iron and has moderately sized chondrules which have metamorphosed sufficiently to obliterate most chondrule outlines. Kilabo’s matrix is both highly shocked and brecciated — characteristics which did not result from its relatively soft landing on Earth. A fine filigree of shock melt is seen coursing throughout its gray matrix. Covered with 60% fusion crust — the result of burning through Earth’s atmosphere — along with slight dimpling and terrestrial tinting, this is a choice example.