Chaco, Argentina - A 30-ton rock unearthed last September 10 believed to be the second largest meteorite and the third of its kind in the history of galactic bodies discovered on Earth.
FIRST: Hoba
First, there was Hoba which as of the moment owns the title "world's largest meteor on Earth". Discovered in 1920, a farmer from Hoba West in Southwest Africa heard a metallic scratching while ploughing the field with an ox. Believed to exist around 80,000 years ago, this weighs more than 60 tons and proclaimed National Monument in 1955. New York's American Museum of Natural History tried to buy the rock but unfortunately wasn't able to do so due to transportation problems with its size and weight so it remained in its discovery site in Naminbia
SECOND: El Chaco
Located in Argentina, same area with the newly discovered meteorite, El Chaco was discovered in 1969 weighing 37 tons. It was then extracted after 11 years in 1980 at Campo del Cielo, between Santiago del Estero and the province of Chaco.
THIRD: Gancedo
"The size and weight surprised us," said by President Mario Vesconi of Astronomy Association of Chaco as similar to the weight of a humpback whale which is about 30,000 kilograms. Even though they can't disclose the precise heaviness of the rock, they can tell that it's larger than El Chaco meteorite; which cements its spot to be the second largest in the history.
Named after a village where it was found ,Gancedo was also situated 1,085 kilometers away from the country's capital, Buenos Aires. It is in Campo del Cielo (Field of Heaven), a place in Argentina, where metallic meteor shower 4000 years ago occurred offering us the two iron-nickel meteorites found on Earth's surface.
Several smaller meteorites were also founded and sold and was even stolen by tourists and meteorite maniacs.
