Imilac meteorites are very interesting and beautiful Pallasites from the Atacama desert in Chile.
Imilac meteorites
Discovered in 1822 by the indian José Maria Chaile at the western end of the Salar de Imilac in a remote part of the high desert, small Imilac meteorites were offered by the finder to British Museums and subsequently arousing the interest of scientists. Big and small specimens were recovered, among them the main mass of the Imilac meteorite: a 198 Kg stone which was sold to the British Museum where it is still on display today.
Imilac meteorite in situ
Imilac meteorites consist of Nickel Iron and Olivine crystals. These yellow/orange crystals are mostly fractured.
Crystals on the surface are (partly) weathered away, producing the famous Imilac meteorite skeletons which consist of the remaining meteorite iron in interesting shapes.
Accordingt to the Meteoritical Bulletin 920 Kg of Meteorites were found in the Imilac strewnfield which extends over 8 x 2 Km at an altitude of more than 2500m in a very remote part of the Atacama desert.
At the end of the strewnfield lies a medium sized crater of no more than 10m diameter and about 3m depth. Some studies mention other smaller craters in the vicinity, however, we didn’t see them. From the impact crater extended a several hundred meters long sector which produced many smallish 1g Imilac meteorites and skeletons that were recovered metal detecting for several weeks. We assume that these are the remains of the exploded main mass.
Imilac meteorite crater
The Imilac strewnfield was obviously hunted thoroughly by many meteorite hunters, tire tracks and plastic metal detector parts are omnipresent, new meteorite finds at Imilac are not very probable.
We were able to recover the last pieces of Imilac Pallasites by combing the strewnfield meticulously, so there won’t be much more material of this rare meteorite available in the future.
Hunting Imilac meteorites
Take advantage of the last Imilac meteorites for sale and acquire your specimen today!