El Hammami (5,700g)

El Hammami
Tiris Zemmour, Mauritania
Found 1997
Ordinary chondrite (H5)
In 1997 January, an unknown mass of material, possibly broken apart from a single large stone, was sold to meteorite collectors by nomads near the town of Mhamid, Morocco; this material has since been resold under the names Mhamid and Hamada du Draa.  The nomads claimed that this meteorite was found to the south, in Algeria (~29º50'N 5º50'W), in the direction of a fireball seen in 1995 January.  In 1997 September, the same nomads shipped a fragment of a meteorite that they claimed was seen to fall on 1997 August 10 to Mr. Edwin Thompson.  In 1997 November, Thompson traveled to Mauritania and collected six fresh-looking stones totaling ~200 kg (individual masses of 80, 51, 30, 26, 8, and 4 kg) at the base of the El Hammami Mountains in Mauritania (1000 km southwest of Mhamid, Morocco), probably in the place where they fell; fragments of these have been sold by Thompson and other dealers under the name El Hammami.  Classification and mineralogy of El Hammami stones (A. Rubin, UCLA): olivine, Fa18.8; pyroxene Fs16.7Wo1.4; shock stage S2; contains metal veins; petrologic type 5.  Classification and mineralogy of Hamada du Draa stones (D. Weber, Mün):  olivine, Fa19.2; pyroxene Fs17.4; shock stage S2; contains conspicuous metal-rich veins; petrologic type 5/6; some of the material appears weathered and rusts easily, but the bulk is quite fresh.  Specimens from El Hammami stones: ~100 kg, Thompson; type specimen, UCLA.  Specimens originally called Hamada du Draa are now scattered in private collections, and some may remain in Morocco; type specimen, ~1 kg, Mün.