Space Stones
Iron meteorites are space rocks made mostly of iron with a bit of nickel mixed in. When they fall through Earth’s atmosphere, they often form a thin black crust that can rust over time. Even though only around 5% of seen meteorite falls are iron, they’re easier to spot and survive much longer in the ground than other types—so they’re found more often than stony or stony-iron meteorites
When space rocks—called meteors—make it all the way to the ground, they’re then known as meteorites.
We have a selection of meteorites that you can own! Find them here.
Sikhote-Alin
On the 12th February 1947, a great fireball exploded over Eastern Siberia, scattering these iron fragments over one and a half square kilometres. There were over 200 impact holes with the largest recorded as 26 meters across.
Sikhote-Alin is a huge iron, responsible for one of the largest meteorite showers in recorded history. After breaking off from its parent body 320 million years ago, the 70-metric-ton iron mass wandered through interplanetary space until it encountered the Earth. On 12 February 1947 a fireball, brighter than the Sun, exploded at an altitude of about 6 km over Eastern Siberia. Sonic booms were heard at distances up to 300 km from the impact point. On the ground, chimneys collapsed, windows shattered and trees were uprooted. A 33-km-long smoke trail persisted for several hours in the atmosphere after the meteorite struck the ground. Iron fragments were scattered over an elliptical area of 1.6 square kilometers. Many of the fragments penetrated the soil, producing impact holes as large as 26 meters; about 200 such holes have been catalogued.
https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/deep-impact/complete-sikhote-alin-meteorite-4/11749
Find meteorites at The Smithsonian: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/explore/collections/geogallery/10026299
Gibeon Meteorite
This piece (pictured) fell in the Kalahari Desert. It formed 4.5 billion years ago, and landed on earth about 3.3 million years ago. Indigenous tribespeople would form these hard rocks into spear points and tools. It is named after the local town where it was discovered, Gibeon in Namibia.
Like most iron meteorites, Gibeon meteorites originated 4.5 billion years ago from the molten core of an asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter whose shattered remains are part of the asteroid belt.
Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
Check out this huge Gibeon Meteorite that sold at Sotheby’s: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/history-of-science-technology-including-natural-history/gibeon-meteorite
Lots more useful information over at MinDat: https://www.mindat.org/loc-31077.html
Widmanstätten
This pattern is called Widmanstätten. The meteorite has been sliced and drenched in a weak acid to show off the crystalline structure of the different alloys.
Widmanstätten pattern, lines that appear in some iron meteorites when a cross section of the meteorite is etched with weak acid. The pattern is named for Alois von Widmanstätten, a Viennese scientist who discovered it in 1808. It represents a section through a three-dimensional octahedral structure in the metal that is formed of bands of kamacite with narrower borders of taenite, the meshes being filled with a mixture of these two alloys.
https://www.britannica.com/science/Widmanstatten-pattern
Pallasite
This is Pallasite and it’s almost as old as the universe itself. You see these green crystals shining through - this is ovaline, which is also known as peridot!
Discover Pallasite at The Natural History Museum, London: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/imilac-meteorite-gem-as-old-solar-system.html
Pallasites are widely considered the most beautiful meteorites, and Imilac is among the most coveted. Like all main-group pallasitic meteorites, Imilac originated from the mantle-core boundary of an asteroid that broke apart during the early history of our solar system.
A stony-iron meteorite composed essentially of large single glassy crystals of olivine (forsterite) embedded in a network of nickel-iron, with accessory troilite, chromite, phosphide, various phosphate minerals, and sometimes pyroxene. Pallasites are believed to have been formed at the interface of the stony mantle and metal core of layered planetoids.
https://www.mindat.org/min-49898.html
Stones pictured are from Marcus McCallum
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Sikhote-Alin |
Gibeon Meteorite showing Widmanstätten | Pallasite |