Three meteorites are known to have fallen in Costa Rica. The most well known is called “Heredia,” after the place where it fell on April 1, 1857. The people in the Central Valley were surprised by a fireball crossing the city and then causing a detonating impact on Heredia.
The object was recovered and studied. It was about five to six pounds in weight and had metallic stones. It was reviewed in a book “Tremors, earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions in Costa Rica 1608-1910 (1910)” and described in scientific publications. Some fragments were sent to Chile and further analyzed. It was discovered in 1963 that it was a chondrite, the oldest, and almost unaltered, meteorite type in the history of the Solar System. It’s origin may have been the asteroid Hebe.
Two other cases are known. One was in San Pedro de Poás between 1962 and 1963. A peasant saw it and went to the scene. He found some rocks that he handed over to Mario Fernandez Castro, geologist and professor at the University of Costa Rica. The other was in Tortuguero on June 6, 1912, at about 7pm. Residents saw a gradually descending ball of fire giving off sparks. There was an explosion when it crashed into a tree. No fragments were studied or preserved.
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