Gao-Guenie (b)

CR2

This extremely rare CR2 Carbonaceous chondrite was found in 2002 in Burkina Faso. A dealer received a shipment of Gao meteorites, and noticed that one was different looking. He cut it and instead of an H5 it was a rare CR2! Since 2002, at least two other pieces have come out of the Gao strewnfield, this one I got the same way. I have been buying Gao meteorite from Burkina Faso for almost 7 years, I travled there twice for the Bilanga meteorite fall. My contacts there go to the Gao area every few month and buy all of the stones that are found by local people. So clearly, there was a CR2 fall in the same area, likely much older than the 1960 fall of Gao.

On the exterior, these CR2 meteorites look almost identical to typical Gao stones, but the armored chondrules are what gives them away. I recently got a 10 kilo shipment of Gao, and while washing them, noticed that one 50 gram stone looked different. I cut it and sure enough, it was a Gao-Guenie (b) meteorite!

Inside, this meteorite resembles the NWA 801 CR2, however, you can clearly see on the outside that it is not a desert stone.

This is the ONLY piece of this meteorite on the market, the rest has all been bought up by collectors and scientists for study. In fact, the remainder of this stone I donated to a graduate student who is doing his thesis on the formation of the CR2 meteorites, and needs samples of as many as possible to get proper results.

 

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