On the Trail of the World's Great Meteorites
Cape York
Greenland - Iron
The main mass of this iron meteorite weighs a staggering 34 tons, and is known as Anhighito. It is the largest meteorite on exhibit in any museum.
These meteorites were brought to New York by Robert Peary from Greenland. The Inuit people called it Saviksoah (Great Iron), and it was a source of metal for tools.
Anhighito
Two other huge pieces, named Dog and Woman were found near each other, 7km from the main mass.
Woman
Dog
Peekskill
New York - 1992. Chondrite.
This celebrated 12.4kg meteorite, an H6 chondrite, fell in Peekskill, New York. It crashed through the trunk of a red 1980 Chevy Malibu that was sitting in a driveway. The descent of fireball was witnessed by thousands in the eastern US and was caught on many amateur videotapes.​
Weston
Connecticut - 1807. Chondrite.
A witnessed fall. The meteorite was analysed by 2 Yale professors and their report helped establish meteoritic science in North America.
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One (discredited) story states that, after reading the report, President Thomas Jefferson reputedly said "It's easier to believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven!"
Canyon Diablo - Meteor Crater
This famous crater in Arizona was created by an iron meteorite 50 meters across.
Johnstown
Colorado, July 6,1924. Diogenite.
An observed fall which recently celebrated it's 100th anniversary . Four "terrific explosions" were heard. At least one fragment fell near an outside funeral service of a Mr. Moore and was witnessed by 200 attendees! The undertaker used his shovel to dig up the first piece. This piece ended up in the Denver Museum of NH. A second piece (52 lbs) was dug up 1.5 miles to the northeast and is now housed in the AMNH.
Johnstown is a rare diogenite; these are thought to be from the asteroid 4 Vesta. The Johnstown Historical Society raised funds to return a piece to the community for the 100th anniversary of the fall.
Kenna
New Mexico, USA - 1972. Ureilite.
Martian Meteorites
Shergotty
India - 1865. Martian shergottite. The original SNC Martian meteorite from 1865!
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.
Nakhla
Egypt - 1911. Martian.
The original SNC (Nakhlite) Martian meteorite. Nakhla is a famous meteorite which was a witnessed fall of multiple pieces in 1911. It was later proven to be from Mars ( broken free of Mars gravity by an early impact on the planet, ending up on Earth)! A piece reportedly struck and killed a dog when it landed !!
Historic Meteorites
Ensisheim
Alsace, France - 1492. LL6 Chondrite.
First a bright fireball was seen. Then a stone of 127kg crashed into a field. This event was recorded in drawings and engravings. Local residents chipped away pieces of it as souvenirs. King Maximilian visited Ensisheim 3 weeks after the fall, declared it to be a holy message from God, and secured it inside a local church. The stone continues to be preserved in Ensisheim. This was the first European witnessed meteorite fall to have a written record. It was called the Thunderstone.
Krasnojarsk
Russia - 1749. Pallasite.
In 1772, while travelling through a remote area of Siberia, the German naturalist Peter Pallas examined a huge 700kg iron mass near the town of Krasnojarsk - a mass that the locals said had fallen from the sky. It was partly covered with a black crust, and there were many translucent peridot crystals set in an iron matrix. Chladni, a German physicist, felt that it was different from all known Earth rocks. Pallas had discovered a new type of stony-iron meteorite that would later be named a pallasite.
Wold Cottage
Yorkshire, UK - 1795. Chondrite.
On December 13, 1795, a 25.4kg stone was seen by eyewitnesses to fall at Wold Cottage, England. This occurred out of a clear sky, contradicting the popular explanations of formation of meteorites as being caused by lightning or condensation in clouds. More about this in the BNHM section.
L'Aigle
France - 1803. Chondrite.
A shower of about 3,000 stones fell in broad daylight, witnessed by many people. This incident attracted public attention leading to research in the new science of meteoritics. Jean-Baptise Biot of the French Academy of Sciences investigated the fall, then wrote a paper that caused a scientific paradigm shift proving that meteorites are from space.​
Orgueil
This meteorite fell on the village of Orgueil, France. It is a carbonaceous chondrite, a primitive meteorite having a chemical composition much like that of the Sun (without the gases) and thus of the solid material that formed at the birth of the solar system. Initially it was felt to resemble peat and coal. About 20 fragments of the meteorite were recovered.
Gibeon - Namibia
Namibia -1863. Iron.
This iron meteorite was part of a very large strewnfield. When cut and etched with acid, it displays a beautiful internal Widmanstatten pattern.
Hoba
Namibia - 1920. Iron.
A piece from the largest single intact meteorite in the world.
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An iron ataxite meteorite weighing an estimated 60,000 kg. It has never been moved from where it was found in 1920 near Grootfontein, Namibia.
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Bjurböle
Finland - 1899. Chondrite.
Bjurböle is a historic witnessed fireball fall in southern Finland in March of 1899. It is the largest meteorite recovered in Finland. It fell through thick sea-ice near the shore of the town of Porvoo, went through a small amount of sea-water then through 8 metres deep of thick mud-clay layer, settling on the bedrock. The meteorite was recovered in several fragments totalling at least 328kg. The people constructed a waterproof wooden well which was pushed down through the mud to the bedrock. Eventually a diver was able to pull up the meteorite !
It is a rare L/LL4 chondrite that is friable and known for having lots of chondrules that free easily from the matrix. The main mass of 80kg is in a museum in Helsinki.
Here is a link to a website with nice historic pictures of the hole in the ice, where the meteorite was found in the mud, a map, etc
Gao - Guenie
Burkina Faso - 1960. Chondrite.
Initially reported to be from 2 separate meteor showers in 1960, with 2 different names, later research showed the meteorites to be from the same event, likely March 5 1960.
Allan Hills 76009
Many meteorites have been found in Antarctica. This L6 chondrite was found by a research helicopter searching over an area of bare ice in Victoria Land, Antarctica during the 1976 - 1977 season. Total weight was 407 kg.
Carlton
Owens Valley
California - 1913. Iron
A 193.2 kg mass was found by a shepherd in 1913, near Big Pine, California.
Lincoln Ellsworth, an Arctic explorer, donated it in 1922 to the U.S. National Museum.
Texas - 1887. Iron.
A mass of over 80 kg was plowed up in 1887 near Carlton, Texas. A mineral, chladnite, was first discovered in this meteorite and named after Ernst Chladni, a pioneer of meteoritics.
Photo's used with permission of the American Natural History Museum, NYC