TaeniteNantan meteorites, Lihu - Yaochai area, Nandan Co., Hechi Prefecture, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Photo: RWMW Latitude: 25°6'N
Longitude: 107°42'E
A Nickel-Iron Octahedrite was observed to fall in May of 1516 (“During summertime in May of Jiajing 11th year, stars fell from the northwest direction, five to six fold long, waving like snakes and dragons. They were as bright as lightning and disappeared in seconds".) The fall was estimated at 9000 kg. It lay untouched until "the great leap forward" in 1958, when peasants were to boost steel production with neighbourhood blast furnaces. There was a shortage of iron and so the meteorites were dug up. Fortunately their melting point was too high and the meteorites were spared. When cleaned from their heavy oxide coating they show three dimensional Widmanstaetten lines, i.e. octahedral crystals of kamacite to over an inch.
The fall was in an 8 km wide path, trending northwesterly over a length of 27 to 28 km between the towns of Lihu and Yaochai, located NE and ESE of Nandan, respectively. The grid reference is arbitrarily centered on this area.
Mineral List
10 entries listed. 6 valid minerals.
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