On February 11, 2002, a bright fireball was witnessed by over parts of the Moroccan and Algerian border. Local nomads helped locate the strewnfield and many beautiful stones with velvety-black crust were found. Some of the stones were friable and were broken on impact or broken after recovery. A sample was classified as a LL6 chondrite that is a fine-grained breccia with metal flecks and sparse chondrules.
The specimen offered here is a superb example of this locality. It is an early recovery stone that is in pristine condition with no oxidation. It has the velvety black crust that is typical of this fall. The "bottom" side has a spiderweb of fine contraction cracks that are difficult to photograph but visible in hand. It has a pleasing rounded shape with smooth curves. There is one tiny chip in the crust that shows the fresh matrix. It weighs 2.07 grams.
It comes with a small riker box with a hand-written label on the reverse side. It also has the original price tag (probably from a rock or meteorite show). The price back in 2002 or 2003 was $30. (I paid more than that).
Refer to the photo. The black centimeter cube is shown for scale and is not included. You are purchasing the specimen shown. Your purchase will include the original display box plus my own ID label.
From the Meteoritical Bulletin entry for Bensour :
Bensour
Morocco/Algeria
Found, possible fall, 2002 February 11
Ordinary chondrite (LL6)
Eyewitness accounts from several nomads in the border region of Morocco and Algeria attest to a significant fall of many individual stones on February 11, 2002. However these reports are not detailed. Total weight is estimated to be in excess of 45 kg. Individual stones (up to 9.2 kg) are very pale grey with a glistening black fusion crust.
