Editors: Abderrahmane Ibhi, Giorgio S. Senesi, Lahcen Ouknine, Fouad Khiri

African Meteorites

eBook: US $49 Special Offer (PDF + Printed Copy): US $79
Printed Copy: US $55
Library License: US $196
ISBN: 978-981-5136-30-2 (Print)
ISBN: 978-981-5136-29-6 (Online)
Year of Publication: 2023
DOI: 10.2174/97898151362961230101

Introduction

African Meteorites is a comprehensive exploration of meteorite falls and finds across the arid and hot regions of the African continent, offering profound insights into a significant collection of meteorites, second only to Antarctica. The book is divided into seven chapters, covering the origin and formation of meteorites, statistical analyses of meteorite falls in African countries, classes and mass distribution of meteorite finds, allocation and renaming of North West African (NWA) meteorites, exceptional and rare meteorite falls and finds in Eastern Morocco Sahara, protocols for recognizing, recovering, and preserving meteorites in Sahara, and a review of confirmed and proposed meteorite falls, finds, and impact structures in Egypt, Sudan, and Libya. With detailed and updated references complementing the simple presentation, this book is an invaluable resource for meteoriticists, hunters, museums, astronomers, students, and geology and astronomy enthusiasts, on the origin, characteristics, and collection of meteorites discovered in Africa.

Key Themes:

  • - Meteorite origin, formation, and classification
  • - Meteorite falls and finds in Africa
  • - Unique features of North West Africa (NWA) meteorites
  • - Rare and exceptional meteorite falls and finds in Eastern Morocco Sahara
  • - Protocols for recognizing and preserving meteorites in the Sahara
  • - Meteorite falls, finds, and impact structures in Egypt, Sudan, and Libya

Audience: Meteoriticists, geologists, mineralogists, historians, researchers and general readers.

Preface

According to Alain Carion, “At the beginning of the 20 th century, in a book by the Marquis de Mauroy, he wrote that to discover meteorites, one had to read books, see, and possibly touch real meteorites. The authors, with their books on meteorites and the University Museum of Meteorites of Agadir created by some of them, are in line with the discoverers of knowledge”. This is the sense that this book aims to deal with meteorites in Africa. The book that the reader has in his hands is a collection of works performed on meteorites in Africa, where arid and hot zones represent 60% of the continent's surface.

This book is a single item of reference for all researchers who require complete information on the origin and characteristics of meteorite falls and finds in Africa, which includes the second-largest population of meteorites on the Earth. This book also provides unique information related to meteorite classification, and can be an important reference on the favorable factors to collect meteorites in Africa, which still hides a huge number of undiscovered meteorites.

The book will be useful for researchers, meteorite hunters, meteorite enthusiasts, museums, astronomers, students, and any person interested in geology and astronomy.

As it is a voluminous subject, we might have missed some references. Readers are requested to bring such omissions to our notice to be included in future editions.

We thank Dr. Vanni Moggi Cecchi for writing the foreword of this book.

Abderrahmane Ibhi
Geoheritage and Geomaterials Laboratory
& University Museum of Meteorites
Ibn Zohr University, Agadir,
Morocco

Giorgio S. Senesi
CNR - Institute for Plasma Science
and Technology (ISTP) - Bari Seat
Bari, Italy

Lahcen Ouknine
Geoheritage and Geomaterials Laboratory
& University Museum of Meteorites
Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco

&

Fouad Khiri
Geoheritage and Geomaterials Laboratory
University Museum of Meteorites
Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco
Regional Center of Trades of Education Training Inzegane
Agadir, Morocco