Mont Tourniat 002

Rumuruti chondrite (R3)
Found November, 2022 in Tiris Zemmour, Mauritania

Rumuruti meteorites are named after the town of Rumuruti in Kenya, where the first specimen of this meteorite group fell on January 28 in 1934. At 10:45pm local time, a dazzling light was followed by loud explosions as several stones, with a total weight of only a few pounds, fell to Earth over a quarter of a mile. The only known 67-gram stone has been held in a collection at the Museum fur Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. Less than 0.5% of chondrites are classified as R chondrites.

Type 3 Rumuruti meteorites, such as Mont Tourniat 002, are of special interest to scientists because they represent formation under more oxidizing conditions compared to other groups of chondrites. Some R chondrites are also believed to contain evidence of alteration by fluids, which formed hydrated minerals such as amphiboles and biotite. These rocks were then dehydrated during thermal metamorphism, according to recent research.