Gold Basic Chondrite Meteorites For Sale

The meteorite known as Gold Basin is an L4 chondrite found in Mojave County, Arizona in 1995. Jim Kriegh, a local hobby prospector and professor at the University of Arizona, stumbled upon the meteorite among arroyos while detecting for gold. Since its finding, well over 100 kilograms of material have been recovered and its strewn field is considered one of the oldest and most thoroughly mapped on Earth.

Gold Basin had been found by gold prospectors before, but its stones were usually dismissed as hot rocks before Kriegh's discovery. Though a low-iron variety of chondrite, it still has enough nickel-iron to set off metal detectors. It likely fell sometime during the Wisconsin Glaciation about 15,000 years ago. When sliced, this meteorite shows a multitude of gray to black silicate clasts with grains of detectable nickel-iron.

What Is An L4 Chondrite?

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Chondrite Meteorites

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What Is An L4 Chondrite?

An L4 chondrite is a type of ordinary chondritic meteorite, classified by both its chemical composition and level of thermal metamorphism. The "L" in L4 chondrite stands for "low iron," indicating that this type of meteorite has relatively low levels of iron (around 20-25% by weight) compared to other chondrite groups like H chondrites ("high iron") and LL chondrites ("low total iron, low metal").

The number "4" represents its petrologic grade, which describes the extent of thermal alteration the chondrite has experienced on its parent asteroid. An L4 chondrite has undergone moderate thermal metamorphism, enough to alter some of the original minerals but not to the point of completely transforming the chondrules (the round grains within the meteorite).

L chondrites are one of the most common types of meteorites found on Earth and are believed to originate from an asteroid within the asteroid belt that may have experienced a collision event.