At about 8:27 pm on the evening of April 24, 2020, several witnesses near the village of Gatuto, Kenya, saw a bright trail in the sky, and about 5 minutes later heard three detonations followed by another longer sound ending with a bang. One of the witnesses to these phenomena was outside his house near Gatuto road when he and his family saw the fireball and heard detonations. Moments later they witnessed the impact of an object 15 m away, and discovered a 1 m deep hole in his maize garden. The following morning, an intact 6140 g fusion-crusted stone was excavated from the hole. A woman was preparing supper in her house near the village of Kombuini (between Kagio and Kutus) when she heard a noise on the corrugated metal roof. She looked into the next room and saw a hole in the roof and shattered rock on the concrete floor. Further investigations resulted in the recovery of a 2290 g stone, excavated next to a tree with bark shredded at a high angle to the ground on a farm, as well as a 1 kg stone next to the Kerugoya-Kaguma road near the nearby village of Kimicha, an additional 494.4 g of fragments from other farms, and 117.7 g of fragments which had impacted and made white marks on the Kagio-Kutus road near Kimicha. Another >8 kg stone was excavated from its impact hole behind a man’s home located 2.2 km NNW of Gatuto; although people struck the stone with a hammer and removed some fragments, a ~7.4 kg intact piece remained.
The total weight of recovered material is estimated to be ~25 kg. The most complete stones are largely coated by black fusion crust. Their interiors and the broken fragments are light gray in color with a crystalline ("sugary") appearance and visible fresh metal grains. Some stones exhibit rare very thin, black shock veinlets.
Visit the Meteoritical Bulletin Database: Entry for Gatuto Meteorite
The 6.2KG Gatuto Meteorite smashed in a backyard.
Gatuto pronounced (Ga- too- toe)
This meteorite is a whopping 6140 gram complete individual that recently fell in Kenya. This is a World Class Museum piece marking an important event in Meteoritical History. On the evening of April 24, 2020 Josphat Gakere witnessed the meteor coming in and impacted his garden making a giant hole where his corn was growing.
Tree stump smashed by a big Individual called the "Tree Shredder"
A magnificent 2290 gram individual which struck a tree and ricocheted several feet into the ground. This incredible tree survived the impact but lost a long strip of bark that was shredded from the encounter. This collision left the tree bent from the point of impact.
This Meteorite is from the latest witnessed fall on 4/24/2020 and was found in Gatuto Kenya.
24 April 2020
At about 8:27 pm on the evening of April 24, 2020, several witnesses near the village of Gatuto, Kenya, saw a bright trail in the sky, and about 5 minutes later heard three detonations followed by another longer sound ending with a bang.
25 April 2020
The following morning, an intact 6140 g fusion-crusted stone was excavated from the hole in a maize garden. Further investigations resulted in the recovery of a 2290 g stone, excavated next to a tree with bark shredded at a high angle to the ground on a farm, as well as a 1 kg stone next to the Kerugoya-Kaguma road near the nearby village of Kimicha, an additional 494.4 g of fragments from other farms, and 117.7 g of fragments which had impacted and made white marks on the Kagio-Kutus road near Kimicha.
04 July 2020
The Gatuto meteorite from Kenya was approved by the Meteoritical Society on july the 4th as an L6 ordinary chondrite with shockstage S2 and a weathering grade of W0.
Weighing 6.2 kilos (13.5 lbs) and
measuring 8 x 7 x 5 in
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