From a report by Daniel Moncada, The Universtiy of Chile
The project focused on the establishment and consolidation of the National Meteorite Repository of the University of Chile, a permanent scientific collection dedicated to the preservation, characterization, and study of meteorites recovered from the Atacama Desert. The repository was built upon specimens collected during University of Chile field expeditions and through collaborations with national and international institutions, resulting in a curated collection of 65 meteorites.
Meteoritical Society funding was used to support both collection preservation and scientific characterization activities. Funds enabled the acquisition of a humidity-controlled storage cabinet for long-term specimen conservation, the preparation of 20 new petrographic thin sections, infrared spectroscopy analyses of selected meteorite samples, and magnetic susceptibility measurements conducted at the Paleomagnetism Laboratory of the University of Chile. The project also supported the development of the repository website and the registration of a dedicated domain to provide public access to collection information and scientific results.
A major component of the project was the curation and integration of existing scientific data. Results from seven undergraduate research theses were reviewed, standardized, and incorporated into a unified repository database. Additional petrographic observations were conducted using optical microscopy at the Department of Geology, University of Chile, allowing the revision of several descriptions and the assignment of shock stages to specimens with available thin-section data.
The resulting catalog represents the first integrated database of the collection and provides a foundation for future studies. Scientific outcomes include meteorite classification, identification of potential paired fragments corresponding to at least nine possible common fall events, and the development of new undergraduate and doctoral research projects that will continue expanding the repository's scientific value.
The project benefited undergraduate students, early-career researchers, academic institutions, and the broader meteoritics and geoscience communities. Through the establishment of the National Meteorite Repository of the University of Chile, meteorite specimens recovered from the Atacama Desert are now preserved within a curated scientific collection that remains accessible for future research, teaching, and outreach activities.