The Chinguetti meteorite is a find reputed to come from a large unconfirmed 'iron mountain' in Africa. The existence of a huge stony-iron

mesosiderite Mesosiderites are a class of stony–iron meteorites consisting of about equal parts of metallic nickel-iron and silicate. They are breccias with an irregular texture; silicates and metal occur often in lumps or pebbles as well as in fine-grained ...

approximately 45 kilometers from the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

n city

Chinguetti Chinguetti () ( ar, شنقيط, translit=Šinqīṭ) is a ksar and a medieval trading center in northern Mauritania, located on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar. Founded in the 13th century as the center of several trans-Saharan trade routes, ...

, Mauritania, has been a mystery since 1916, when Captain

Gaston Ripert Gaston is a masculine given name of French origin and a surname. The name "Gaston" may refer to: People First name *Gaston I, Count of Foix (1287–1315) *Gaston II, Count of Foix (1308–1343) *Gaston III, Count of Foix (1331–1391) *Gaston I ...

, a French consular official, claimed to have discovered 'a huge iron hill high and long.' Ripert said that he had been guided blindfolded by a local chieftain to a natural source of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

, after a 12-hour-long camel ride to the south-east of Chinguetti. He bagged a 4 kilogram fragment of the rock, which found its way to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

some years later, where geologist

Alfred Lacroix Antoine François Alfred Lacroix (4 February 186312 March 1948) was a French mineralogist and geologist. He was born in Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire. Education Lacroix completed a D. s Sc. in Paris in 1889, as student of Ferdinand André Fouqué ...

pronounced that it was an important discovery. However, despite the attempts of several expeditions since, the supposed meteorite could not be found again. Ripert wrote to Professor

Théodore Monod Théodore André Monod (9 April 1902 – 22 November 2000) was a French naturalist, humanist, scholar and explorer. Exploration Early in his career, Monod was made professor at the ''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'' and founded the '' Inst ...

in 1934: 'I know that the general opinion is that the stone does not exist; that to some, I am purely and simply an impostor who picked up a metallic specimen. That to others, I am a simpleton who mistook a sandstone outcrop for an enormous meteorite. I shall do nothing to disabuse them, I know only what I saw.' Despite various searches over the years, Monod concluded in 1989 that Ripert had been mistaken: 'An error was made in the identification of the rock of a 40-metre hill that is entirely sedimentary with no trace of metal,' he wrote. In 1980, former French air force officer

Jacques Gallouédec Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

was carrying out aerial surveys for the Mauritanian water authority, when he spotted a strange semi-circular ground formation to the south-east of Chinguetti. He sent details to Théodore Monod but the professor was unable to locate it. He is the only person alive today who claims to have seen Ripert's rock. In 2000, a US team claimed it had found the site, and determined it was just a large natural

hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of ...

formation . The meteorite fragments found nearby were unrelated to this formation. Finally, the Chinguetti fragment that was sent to Paris was analysed again, and it was concluded that it could not have been a meteorite larger than in radius.

External links

* http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/E/ends/meteorite1.html * http://www.dnp.fmph.uniba.sk/etext/40/text/MAPS36Welten2.pdf *

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General ...

: '' 'The meteorite that vanished' '' documentary {{Authority control Meteorites found in Mauritania

See also

External links