Gold Basin Meteorite, from Arizona, U.S.A. (REF:GBM01)

Type;Chondrite

First Found;24th November 1995

Observed Fall:No

Country:United States

Fall Date;Late Pleistocene Period

The Gold Basin meteorites became something of an annoyance to gold prospectors working with metal detectors in the area of Mohave County, Arizona, USA. 

While they are L4 Chondrite (stoney) meteorites they do contain sufficient iron to register on a metal detector. This earned them the nickname "hot rocks”. They were generally discarded as useless to the prospectors.

In 1995, Professor Jim Kriegh was also prospecting for gold, but, upon finding one of these meteorites was immediately aware of what he had found.

Since then over 1400 of these stoney meteorites have been found with a total mass of over 60kg. The largest to be found has an individual weight of over 1.5kg.

Pieces of this meteorite can be found in various collections including The Smithsonian Institution.

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