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- Date of finding 1861
- Place of discovery The Atacama Desert (Chile) near the Vaca Muerta ravine
- Dimensions height: 20 cm, length: 26 cm, width: 23 cm, weight: 20 kg
- ID no. ZNG PAN B-V-57/38.1
- Museum The Geological Museum of the Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
- Availability in stock
- Material rock
- Subjects surprising, nature, excavated from the earth
- Finder Ignacy Domeyko
- Acquired date 1884
- Object copyright The Geological Museum of the Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
- Digital images copyright public domain
- Digitalisation RDW MIC, Małopolska's Virtual Museums project
- Tags cosmos , 3D , mineral , meteorite , audiodescription , 3D plus , public domain
In the classification of meteorites, Vaca Muerta belongs to a small group of iron and stone meteorites known as mesosiderites. Mesosiderites are meteorites containing both stone and iron parts. Metal does not constitute a consolidated and unbroken structure, but appears in the form of larger or smaller fragments of meteorite iron melted into a mass of silicate minerals.
more In the classification of meteorites, Vaca Muerta belongs to a small group of iron and stone meteorites known as mesosiderites. Mesosiderites are meteorites containing both stone and iron parts. Metal does not constitute a consolidated and unbroken structure, but appears in the form of larger or smaller fragments of meteorite iron melted into a mass of silicate minerals.
The meteorite weighing 20 kg was found in 1861 in the Atacama Desert (Chile) near the Vaca Muerta ravine. The meteorite was given the name of the ravine (dead cow in Spanish) by Ignacy Domeyko (1802–1889) — mineralogist and geologist operating in Chile, who was the first to research it. Also, other iron and stone meteorites — Imilac pallasites — fell on the Atacama Desert and they were found by Domeyko, too.
This meteorite joined the collection in 1884 as a donation from Ignacy Domeyko. It was given by him personally, during his stay in Kraków, when he visited the library and rooms of the Kraków Academy of Learning as recalled by him in the fifth volume of his diary that was published in 1962–1963 in Wrocław.
The original chest in which the exhibit was kept together with the other meteorite was also brought to Poland.
Elaborated by the Geological Museum of the Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, © all rights reserved
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