Chisenga

Seen to fall in 1988 in Malawi · 3.9 kg recovered · Iron, IIIAB

Chisenga is the most recent of the five falls recorded in Malawi. It is one of 48 iron meteorites among the observed falls.

Group: Iron meteorites
Recorded position: 10.059° S, 33.395° E

The map is centred on Chisenga. Rings every 200 km; numbers match the table below.

Nearest recorded falls

The closest recorded fall to Chisenga is Ishinga, 133 km to the north. Within 250 km lie four other recorded falls.

#	Fall	Year	Class	Recovered	Distance
1	Ishinga	1954	H	1.3 kg	133 km north
2	Mtola	1944	Unclassified stone	1.1 kg	161 km south
3	Ivuna	1938	CI1	705 g	211 km north-west
4	Peramiho	1899	Eucrite-mmict	165 g	240 km east
5	Dowa	1976	Unclassified stone	642 g	405 km south
6	Kalaba	1951	H4	950 g	559 km north-west

What Iron, IIIAB means

Iron, IIIAB is the label for an iron meteorite of chemical group IIIAB, defined by its nickel and trace-element content. By recovered mass Chisenga ranks sixth of the 10 Iron, IIIAB falls. The nearest other Iron, IIIAB fall is Kayakent in Turkey, 5,487 km away. In date order among Iron, IIIAB falls, the one before Chisenga is Juromenha (1968, Portugal) and the one after is Sterlitamak (1990, Russia).

Dark ticks: 10 Iron, IIIAB falls, median 15 kg (dotted). Grey: all others.

Chisenga in Malawi’s record

By recovered mass Chisenga comes third of 5 there. The fall recorded before Chisenga in Malawi is Machinga, in 1981.

Bigger dots carry more recovered mass.

The 1980s

Chisenga is one of 54 falls dated to the 1980s. Elsewhere, the record lists five other falls in 1988, among them Chela in Tanzania, Palca de Aparzo in Argentina, Trebbin in Germany.