1.37" El Médano (395) Brachinite Meteorite Slice (5.28 g) - Chile

El Médano () Brachinite Meteorite Slice ( g) - Chile #249944

This is a 1.37" wide (5.28 grams) thin-sliced piece of the El Médano (395) primitive achondrite (brachinite) that was collected during a meteorite hunting expedition in the El Médano region of the Atacama Desert of Chile. It has a gorgeous red-brown coloration.

The specimen is a small part of a single, 2288-gram stone discovered by Steve Arnold in November 2018, near the top of a hill in Antofogasta, Chile. Despite looking very much like a ureilite meteorite, it turned out to be the western hemisphere's first recovered brachinite, a type of primitive achondrite. These extremely rare meteorites are composed almost entirely of olivine and little is known of their origins. Testing determined this El Médano (395) brachinite by volume is composed of 93% olivine, 5.5% diopside, 0.64% chromite, 0.57% plagioclase, 0.25% sulphide, and oxidized iron metal.