Meteorite | Muonionalusta | Iron | 12880g

Product detailed description

The Muonionalusta meteorite struck the Earth 800,000 to 1,000,000 years ago at a site just outside the Arctic Circle near the present-day Swedish village of Kitkiöjoki. But its journey didn’t end there. During the glaciation of our planet, its pieces were transported to places other than their original impact sites. The first discoveries of these pieces are mentioned in 1906, and four years later, the meteorite was named Muonionalusta, after the nearby town and river of Muonio. The name comes from Finnish and its meaning is surprisingly simple: ""Downstream from Muonia"".

This particular piece weighs almost 13 kg and is unique for its beautiful structure of Widmanstätten patterns, which form a regular grid on its cleaned surface. They make it a true work of art and make it clear at a glance that it is not from our planet. These patterns are related to the meteorite’s structure of plate-like crystals of taenite and kamacite. Discovered in 1808 by Count A. J. von Widmanstätten, they are clear evidence of the extra-terrestrial origin of the body, as they have never been observed in terrestrial iron before. Their formation is attributed to the metal cooling in a weightless state for several million years.

The Muonionalusta meteorite is classified as a Class IVA Octahedrite based on the octahedral crystals of the mineral kamacite. Pieces of this meteorite, which are found at great depths often exceeding six meters, have been more or less corroded over thousands of years in glacial moraines and some contain the rare mineral troilit, which is found exclusively in meteoritic irons.

Finds of parts of the Muonionalusta meteorite used to be quite abundant, however, its reserves in the ground have become much thinner and search expeditions now often return empty-handed. Each such failure means that pieces already discovered - especially of this size - become more valuable.

Weight: 12,880 g
Location of discovery: Kitikiöjoki, Sweden
Composition: over 91% iron, approx. 8.4% nickel, trace amounts of rare elements: 0.33 ppm gallium, 0.133 ppm germanium and 1.6 ppm iridium; trace minerals: chromite, daubreelite, schreibersite, akaganeite and inclusions of troilite and stishovite.
Interesting fact: Widmanstätten patterns are very visible on the surface