Investigation of a new stony meteorite from Mauritania with some additional data on its find site - Aouelloul crater

The Zerga meteorite, a small stony meteorite found at Aouelloul crater, is a fragment of a larger mass with a pre-atmospheric radius between 20 and 125 cm. The meteorite is a typical amphoterite, with monomict brecchia which has undergone at least one recrystallization episode. The terrestrial age of the meteorite is roughly an order of magnitude smaller than the K-Ar gas-retention age (about 3.1 million years) of the glassy impactite found at the crater, which is close to the age of the nearby Tenoumer crater (about 2.5 million years). The similar ages of the two craters, together with their alignment with the Temimichat Ghallaman crater, suggest a simultaneous triple impact following the disruption of a large meteorite moving on a very shallow earth trajectory. The unusually shallow original depths inferred for two of the craters may be explained by low impact angles.