Dar El Kahal 339.1g

Dar el Kahal is a rarity among Northwest African meteorites in that it has a name rather than a number. Discovered in northern Mali in 2013 by an artifact hunter it has something in common with NWA 869 in that it shows multiple classifications within a single rock: in this case H5 and H6. The “H” indicates high iron content, while the numbers represent “recrystallized type 6 and less intensely recrystallized type 5 fragments,” as noted in the Meteoritical Bulletin.

Dar el Kahal is rich in nickel-iron and is also a breccia — essentially a rock made up of fragments of other rocks. Brecciated meteorites are an important tool in studying the history and formation of our solar system. Breccias, by their very nature, indicate geological (or asteroidal) processes, as they are comprised of previously broken rocks from different sources that have been cemented together to create a new matrix. The formation of brecciated meteorites indicate activity — asteroidal collisions, for example — elsewhere in the solar system.