UCLA Collection

These photos were taken during my visit to the University of California - Los Angeles Meteorite Collection on Oct 18 2024.

Old Woman

California, USA - 1976. Iron IIAB.

This 80.5kg slab is from the second largest meteorite found in the USA, (after Willamette).

Photo's used with permission of the UCLA Meteorite Collection. Thanks to Dr. Alan Rubin.

NWA - (Bir Lehlou)

Western Sahara - 2014. Chondrite.

This impressive 205 kg oriented stony meteorite is one of the largest chondrites in the world. The lighter colour shows where the meteorite was buried.

Gibeon

Namibia - 1863. Iron IVA.

D'Orbigny

Argentina - 1979. Angrite.

This was found by a farmer ploughing a corn field. Years later it was analyzed and found to be an angrite, a rare type of igneous meteorite, the largest of it's type found.

Los Angeles

California, 1999. Martian.

This was recognized as a Martian basalt (shergottite) in October 1999.

Two stones, weighing 452.6 and 245.4gms were found by a man while he was cleaning out a box in his rock collection.

Aletai

China - 1898. Iron IIIE-anomalous

Multiple masses totalling 74 tons have been discovered over a wide area, including the 28 ton Armanty mass and the 18 ton Akebulake mass.

Russia - Feb 15 2013. Chondrite.

This spectacular massive 20m fireball with explosions over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk was the largest meteoritic event since 1947. It was caught on many dash-board video cameras. This meteor was traveling at 19km/sec. The shockwave caused damage to thousands of buildings in several cities, and many people were injured by breaking glass from the shockwave. Thousands of pieces were recovered including a 654kg mass.

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