{"product_id":"gebel-kamil-417-64g-striated-shrapnel-iron-meteorite","title":"Gebel Kamil Iron Meteorite, Ungrouped Ataxite, 417.64g Whole Shrapnel, Striated Impact Crater Specimen","description":"\u003ch2\u003eA 417.64 g striated wedge of Kamil crater shrapnel\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis 417.64 g Gebel Kamil specimen is a single, uncut piece of the iron meteorite that blasted out the 45 m Kamil crater in southwestern Egypt. It is a compact, wedge-shaped fragment of dark metal whose broad faces are swept with fine parallel striations, with a toothed, torn margin and a lobe of metal folded against its base.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Meteoritical Bulletin records Gebel Kamil as an ungrouped iron, a Ni-rich ataxite with extensive shear deformation. Apart from a single 83 kg individual, the material recovered at Kamil is shrapnel: pieces of the impactor torn apart when it struck the ground. This specimen shows that origin plainly. See all our \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/gebel-kamil\"\u003eGebel Kamil specimens\u003c\/a\u003e, browse more \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/iron-meteorites\"\u003eiron meteorites\u003c\/a\u003e, or read \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/what-is-an-iron-meteorite\"\u003ewhat an iron meteorite is\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eStructure and surface features\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompact wedge.\u003c\/strong\u003e The piece is thick and blocky, rising from a broad base to a sloping ridge. Its dark gray metal has a soft satin luster in raking light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStriation fields.\u003c\/strong\u003e Dense sets of fine, closely spaced parallel lines sweep across the broad faces, fanning in places across a sheared, concave face. The close-up photographs show them clearly. The Meteoritical Bulletin writeup notes shear dislocations offsetting the internal structure by several millimeters, \"particularly close to the external surface.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFolded lobe.\u003c\/strong\u003e At the base, a smaller lobe of metal sits pressed against the main body with a visible seam between them, where the iron folded back on itself as it tore.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eToothed margin.\u003c\/strong\u003e One end breaks off in a row of short, serrated projections. Torn edges of this kind form when nickel-iron fails in tension rather than shattering.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNatural surface with iron oxide.\u003c\/strong\u003e The exterior is mostly dark gray to brown metal. Thin lines of orange-brown iron oxide follow fine cracks and recesses, visible in the close-up photographs. The specimen has not been cut, etched or coated.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eDiscovery and provenance\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGebel Kamil was found on 19 February 2009 in the East Uweinat Desert of Egypt, in the Al Wadi al Jadid governorate. The crater was first noticed in 2008 by mineralogist Vincenzo De Michele, formerly of the Natural History Museum in Milan, who spotted its circular outline in satellite imagery on Google Earth. According to the European Space Agency, he passed the find to astrophysicist Mario Di Martino of INAF's Turin observatory, who organized an expedition with Luigi Folco of the Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide in Siena.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eItalian and Egyptian teams surveyed the site in February 2009 and February 2010 under the 2009 Italian-Egyptian Year of Science and Technology. The Bulletin records about 1,600 kg of iron shrapnel in thousands of pieces, ranging from under 1 g to 35,000 g, plus a single 83 kg individual completely covered in well developed regmaglypts. About 800 kg of that total was recovered. ESA, which funded the 2010 expedition through its Space Situational Awareness programme, reported that the 83 kg individual lay about 200 m from the crater and may have split from the main body before impact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe main mass of the recovered specimens is held at the Egyptian Geological Museum in Cairo. Type specimens are held at the Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide, University of Siena, and at the University of Pisa. This specimen was acquired by Treasure Coast Meteorite Co.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSources: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.lpi.usra.edu\/meteor\/metbull.cfm?code=52031\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eMeteoritical Bulletin entry, MB 98\u003c\/a\u003e; \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Enabling_Support\/Operations\/Egyptian_desert_expedition_confirms_spectacular_meteorite_impact\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eEuropean Space Agency, 23 September 2010\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eScientific context\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGebel Kamil is classified by M. D'Orazio and Luigi Folco as an iron meteorite (ungrouped), Ni-rich ataxite, with extensive shear deformation and low weathering. Its metal carries 19.8 wt% nickel and 0.75 wt% cobalt, with 49 ppm gallium and 121 ppm germanium. \"Ungrouped\" means that chemistry does not fall inside any of the established iron meteorite groups, so Gebel Kamil samples a parent body not otherwise represented in the classified record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEtched sections described in the Bulletin show an ataxitic structure interrupted on a centimeter scale by crystals of schreibersite, troilite and daubreelite wrapped in swathing kamacite. The matrix is a duplex plessite of kamacite and taenite lamellae 1 to 5 micrometers thick, arranged in a micro-Widmanstatten pattern visible only under magnification. Read more in \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/widmanstatten-pattern-explained\"\u003ethe Widmanstatten pattern explained\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKamil is one of very few places on Earth where a small, young impact crater and the meteorite that made it can be studied together. The crater is well preserved in the hyperarid desert, and researchers have used it to test models of how small iron bodies survive atmospheric entry and how they fragment on impact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat the research reports\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Meteoritical Bulletin classifies Gebel Kamil as Iron, ungrouped, published in Meteoritical Bulletin 98 (2010). The peer-reviewed studies below agree with that classification and describe the crater and its shrapnel in more detail. Their totals differ slightly from the Bulletin: the field team counted every specimen it located, while the Bulletin records the mass observed and the portion recovered, and the largest shrapnel piece is given as 34 kg in the 2011 study against 35,000 g in the Bulletin. The findings come from the authors' own fieldwork, samples and methods, and are given here as the studies state them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFolco et al. (2010): the discovery report\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eL. Folco, M. Di Martino, A. El Barkooky, M. D'Orazio and fourteen Italian and Egyptian co-authors reported the find in \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.1190990\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eThe Kamil Crater in Egypt\u003c\/a\u003e (Science, volume 329, page 804, 2010). During systematic searches they located 5,178 iron meteorite specimens totalling about 1.71 tonnes in and around the crater. Apart from the one 83 kg individual, all were shrapnel produced when the impactor broke apart on striking the ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFolco et al. (2011): what the shrapnel looks like and where it landed\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe same team described the crater and its debris in \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1130\/G31624.1\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eKamil Crater (Egypt): Ground truth for small-scale meteorite impacts on Earth\u003c\/a\u003e (Geology, volume 39, pages 179 to 182, 2011). They describe the shrapnel as ranging from sharp-edged and jagged to more rounded and smooth, and report that \"Twisted edges are very common.\" The shrapnel is concentrated to the southeast of the crater and nearly absent to the northwest, which the authors read as a downrange jet of debris from an oblique impact arriving from the northwest. Their modeling suggests an iron body of roughly 5 to 10 tonnes striking at about 3.5 km\/s, from a pre-atmospheric mass of about 20 to 40 tonnes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eD'Orazio et al. (2011): the meteorite that made the crater\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eM. D'Orazio, L. Folco, A. Zeoli and C. Cordier published \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/j.1945-5100.2011.01222.x\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eGebel Kamil: The iron meteorite that formed the Kamil crater (Egypt)\u003c\/a\u003e (Meteoritics \u0026amp; Planetary Science, volume 46, pages 1179 to 1196, 2011). They date the crater to less than 5,000 years ago and describe the crater and its meteorite fragments as extremely well preserved. With the exception of the 83 kg individual, they describe every specimen as \"explosion fragments.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eUrbini et al. (2012): one impactor, not a swarm\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eS. Urbini and colleagues published \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/maps.12023\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eGeological and geophysical investigation of Kamil crater, Egypt\u003c\/a\u003e (Meteoritics \u0026amp; Planetary Science, volume 47, pages 1842 to 1868, 2012). Their survey indicates the crater was made by a single mass or a very tight cluster of fragments, a departure from the general model in which small iron meteoroids break up in the atmosphere and form fields of several craters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFazio et al. (2014): shock in the target rock\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA. Fazio, L. Folco, M. D'Orazio, M. L. Frezzotti and C. Cordier studied the crater walls and ejecta in \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/maps.12385\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShock metamorphism and impact melting in small impact craters on Earth: Evidence from Kamil crater, Egypt\u003c\/a\u003e (Meteoritics \u0026amp; Planetary Science, 2014). They estimate peak shock pressures of 30 to 60 GPa in the sandstone target and a vertical impact velocity component of at least 3.5 km\/s. They report Kamil as the smallest crater where shatter cones, coesite, stishovite, diamond and melt veins have been found together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCavosie and Folco (2021): shocked zircon\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCavosie and Folco reported \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1130\/2021.2550(17)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShock-twinned zircon in ejecta from the 45-m-diameter Kamil crater in southern Egypt\u003c\/a\u003e (in Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution VI, Geological Society of America Special Paper 550, pages 419 to 430, 2021), extending the record of shock features at the crater to the mineral zircon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eFrequently asked questions\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs this meteorite classified?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes. Gebel Kamil is an official meteorite name, classified in the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB 98, 2010) as Iron, ungrouped. You can check the entry directly at the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.lpi.usra.edu\/meteor\/metbull.cfm?code=52031\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eMeteoritical Bulletin Database\u003c\/a\u003e. Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. is IMCA Member #3323.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat do \"ungrouped\" and \"ataxite\" mean?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUngrouped means the meteorite's chemistry does not match any established iron meteorite group. Ataxite describes iron so rich in nickel that no visible Widmanstatten pattern develops; the Bulletin writeup records Gebel Kamil as a Ni-rich ataxite with 19.8 wt% nickel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs this an individual or shrapnel?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShrapnel. The Bulletin records one 83 kg individual covered in regmaglypts; everything else recovered at Kamil is shrapnel produced when the impactor exploded on striking the ground. This piece is whole shrapnel: uncut, with its torn surfaces intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat are the explosive shrapnel features on this piece?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFields of fine parallel striations, a folded lobe of metal and a toothed, torn margin. Folco and colleagues (2011) describe twisted edges as very common on Kamil shrapnel, and the Bulletin notes shear deformation concentrated near the outer surface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHas the surface been treated?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo. It has not been cut, etched or coated. The iron oxide visible in the photographs is natural and has been left in place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWill this show a Widmanstatten pattern?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo. The specimen is uncut and unetched, and as a Ni-rich ataxite Gebel Kamil does not develop a visible Widmanstatten pattern. The Bulletin describes a micro-Widmanstatten structure in the plessite matrix, visible only under magnification on etched sections.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow should I care for it?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Bulletin records low weathering for Gebel Kamil, but all iron meteorites can rust in humid air. Handle with clean, dry hands and store away from moisture. See \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/how-to-care-for-and-store-a-meteorite\"\u003ehow to care for and store a meteorite\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/do-meteorites-rust\"\u003edo meteorites rust\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat is included?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 417.64 g Gebel Kamil specimen, a certificate of authenticity from Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. (IMCA #3323), and a certificate card bearing serial TC-00058.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow do I verify this is the same specimen shown in these photographs?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis specimen is recorded under serial TC-00058. Its \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/specimen-record-tc-00058\"\u003especimen record\u003c\/a\u003e is a permanent page holding the classification data as published in the Meteoritical Bulletin, the recorded weight and photographs of this exact piece. Shrapnel surfaces are individual to each fragment, so the specimen in hand can be compared against those photographs and weighed against the recorded figure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eCollector significance\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGebel Kamil ties a classified meteorite to a specific, well studied crater, with the impactor recovered under scientific survey and described in peer-reviewed literature. This piece carries that story on its surface. At 417.64 g it fits in one hand, and the striations read clearly at arm's length.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUncut shrapnel keeps the record of the impact intact. The striation fields, folded lobe and toothed margin on this specimen formed in the moment the Kamil impactor struck the desert, and none of it has been cut away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis specimen is serialized as TC-00058 and listed in the \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/specimen-registry\"\u003eSpecimen Registry\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeteoritical Bulletin entry: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.lpi.usra.edu\/meteor\/metbull.cfm?code=52031\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eGebel Kamil\u003c\/a\u003e | Classification: Iron, ungrouped | Find, Egypt, 2009 | Treasure Coast Meteorite Co., IMCA #3323\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Treasure Coast Meteorite Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47141922701359,"sku":"GEBEL-KAMIL-417.64G-SHRAPNEL-STRIATED","price":835.28,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0726\/9724\/9839\/files\/gebel-kamil-iron-ungrouped-417.64g-whole-shrapnel.jpg?v=1794121213","url":"https:\/\/www.tcmeteorites.com\/products\/gebel-kamil-417-64g-striated-shrapnel-iron-meteorite","provider":"Treasure Coast Meteorite Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}