CAMPO DEL CIELO COARSE OCTAHEDRITE IRON METEORITE.
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Winning Bid:
$562.92
(Includes 15% Buyer's Premium)
Bidding Ended:
Tuesday, November 15, 2016 10:00:00 PM (20 Minute Clock Begins At Tuesday, November 15, 2016 10:00:00 PM)
Item Description
Octahedrites are the most common structural class of iron meteorites. The structures occur because the meteoric iron has a certain nickel concentration that leads to the exsolution (when a solid solution becomes unstable) of kamacite out of taenite while cooling. Due to a long cooling time in the interior of the parent asteroids, these alloys crystallize into intermixed millimeter-sized bands (from about 0.2 mm to 5 cm). When polished and acid-etched, the classic Widmanstätten patterns of intersecting lines of lamellar kamacite, are visible. In gaps between the kamacite and taenite lamellae, a fine-grained mixture called plessite is often found. Graphite and troilite occur in rounded nodules up to several centimeters in size. Offered here is a 5.75x7x4" tall coarse iron octahedrite meteorite w/Type IA silicate inclusions that weighs just over 12 lbs. This meteorite fell in the Campo del Cielo region on the border between the provinces of Chaco and Santiago del Estero, 620 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is estimated that this meteorite fell 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, though it was first discovered in 1576. The craters and the area around contain numerous fragments of an iron meteorite. The total weight of the pieces so far recovered exceeds 100 tons, making the meteorite the heaviest one ever recovered on Earth. The largest fragment, consisting of 37 tons, is the second heaviest single-piece meteorite recovered on Earth, after the Hoba meteorite. This is a complete "natural" specimen, showing flow lines and its original weathered surface, complete w/regmaglypts (the small, thumbprint-like impressions in the fusion crust caused by frictional burning and melting as the meteorite plummeted through Earth's atmosphere), which has trace scattered oxidation given the high iron content of this meteorite. Makes for an out-of-this-world display.
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