Abstract
THE announcement in The Times of November 9 by a Buenos Ayres correspondent of the discovery of as large mass of meteoric iron in the Campo del Cielo region of the Gran Chaco in the northern Argentine is puzzling. He refers to a "legendary meteorite" long ago spoken of as the "Mesón de Fierro"(iron inn), and assumed to be the source of the iron tips of Indian spears seen by the Spanish conquerors. The discovery of a large mass of native iron in this region was made by Hernán MexÍa de Miraval in 1576. This, or perhaps another large mass, was seen by Miguel Rubin de Celis in 1783, and was described by him in the Philosophical Transactions in 1788. The weight of this mass has been variously estimated at from 13½ to 45 tons. Another mass of about one ton, found in 1803, was transported to Buenos Ayres during the war of independence with the idea of manufacturing it into armaments ; and a portion, weighing 1,400 lb., of this was presented to the British Museum in 1826 by Sir Woodbine Parish, who described it in the Philosophical Transactions in 1834. This is still on view in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. More recently, a mass of 4,210 kgm. (more than 4 tons) was found in 1923, another of 732 kgm. in 1925, and several other smaller masses. These have been transported to the National Museum in Buenos Ayres. The new report may perhaps refer to the rediscovery of the larger mass seen by Rubin de Celis in 1783 ; or, not unlikely, still another large mass may have been found. It is suggested that the boundary between the provinces of Santiago del Estero and El Chaco is defined by the position of the "Meson de Fierro". But as shown on a map of the region (Geog. J., 81, 238 ; 1933) masses of iron have been found on both sides of this boundary line. Evidently at this place there was an unusually large shower of meteoric irons. The history of the several masses has been given by Dr. Antenor Alvarez "El meteorito del Chaco" (Buenos Ayres, 1926, pp. 222). But the associated meteorite craters, a group of round and shallow depressions (hoyos or pozos), still require investigation.
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Meteorites of the Gran Chaco. Nature 140, 1006 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/1401006b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1401006b0