Meteorites

I have few meteorites that are excess to my collecting needs. I guarantee these to be 100% authentic. Whether you want one just for the heck of it or as a sacrifice to the Rock Gods during the next NAHSMS Contest, these are sure to please.

Some of them are in 3x4 (Riker) Mounts. The mounts are made of heavy cardboard with a glass front, and a fiber bed for the specimen to lay on. I have printed out frames (on my handy dandy, wizbang, hi-tech inkjet printer - $19.95 for the printer and 35 freaking dollars a piece for the for the ink cartridges) for some of the meteorites and added them to the mounts. They are just to add some color and hopefully enhance display of the specimen. If you would prefer not to have the Riker mount, you can subtract $2.00 from the cost of the meteorite (the ones shown in the mounts, that is).

It is a good idea with all meteorites containing iron, to place a small packet of silica gel desiccant under the backing or in whatever container you store your specimen in. I have found an easy way to get free silica gel is to talk to someone at a shoe store. The little packs seem to fall out of the shoe boxes and end up getting swept up and thrown away. You can also buy the little one gram packs on eBay for about $5 for 100. You can heat them in the oven to dry them out and reuse these over and over again.

Pendants, meteorites in cases and special holders, and meteorites weighing 25 grams or more: These are shipped via USPS priority mail. This is due to either, the size of the meteorite in relation to the envelope, or the item being fragile. Insurance and Delivery Confirmation are extra.

Smaller meteorites and multiple small meteorites: these are shipped in a padded envelope via First Class USPS mail (unless Priority Mail is requested). Insurance and Delivery Confirmation are extra.

Canyon Diablo Meteorite, Octahedrite, type IA. The famous Meteor Crater in Arizona was created by the impact of the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite from which this 21.43 g specimen was obtained. The impact occurred ~25-50 thousand years ago into the Coconino Sandstone of northern Arizona, USA, although the finding of the meteorite is reported to have been in 1891. The total known mass is about 30,000 kg.

A nice Riker mount frame is available for this meteorite. If you're interested, e-mail me and I'll send you a copy of it so you can see how it looks or print out your own, if you'd prefer.

Nantan iron meteorites represent one of the rare witnessed iron meteorite falls in the world. The fall was recorded vividly -- “During summertime in May of Jiajing 11th year, stars fell from the northwest direction, five to six fold long, waving like snakes and dragons. They were as bright as lightning and disappeared in seconds". They fell in Nantan (25 degrees 6' N, 107 degrees 42'E) in 1516, they were much later found by local farmers in 1958 when China needed a lot of steel to push the country's "Great Leap Forward" advocated by Mao Zetung. They have coarse octahedral structure and contain 92.35% iron & 6.96% nickel, belonging to IIICD classification of Wasson et al (1980)’s.

Nantan meteorites, being iron, rust very easily. To keep them from rusting, the individuals (not the fragments in the pendants) have been coated with a very thin coat of laquer.

To give you an idea of size, since I forgot to add a reference in the above picture, the foam area of the above cup is about 1" across.

I have several cross pendants with Nantan Meteorite fragments in them. They are handmade glass pendants with silver plated caps. The cross is approximately 1 1/2 inches tall and 3/4 inch wide. The picture below is just a sample and not the actual pendant you will receive.

The Sikhote-Alin meteorite fell in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Primorye, Russia, near the village of Paseka (approximately 440 km northeast of Vladivostok) on the morning of February 12, 1947. At around 10:30 am that morning, witnesses reported a fireball brighter than the sun that came out of the north, descending at an angle of about 41 degrees. The bright flash and the deafening sound of the fall were observed for three hundred kilometres around the point of impact. The smoke train, which remained in the sky for several hours, was 32 km long.

As the meteorite entered the atmosphere, traveling at a speed of about 14 km/s, it began to break apart, and the fragments fell together. At an altitude of about 5.6 km, the largest mass apparently broke up in a violent explosion.

The strewn field for this meteorite covered an elliptical area of about 1.3 km². Some of the fragments made craters, the largest of which was about 26 m across and 6 m deep. Fragments of the meteorite were also driven into the surrounding trees.

Strewn field - the usually elliptical area over which fragments from a shower of meteorites are distributed on the ground.

The fall of this meteorite occurred in the daytime, and was observed by many eyewitnesses. It is most likely that the former orbit of the Sikhote-Alin meteoroid is similar to that of many other small bodies of the solar system. It is ellipse-shaped, and its point of greatest distance from the sun lies within the asteroid belt. This suggests that the creation of the meteoroid, and its subsequent passage to earth, was precipitated by the collision of asteroids.

The Sikhote-Alin meteorites do not seem to rust quite as easily as the Nantan and this one is un-coated. I would recommend wiping it down with a rust inhibiter, such as WD40, every couple of months to keep it looking great.

Due to the lighting, these pictures have a darker tint to them. The actual color of the meteorite is closer to a gun metal gray.

However, you don't know where the nomads found these meteorites - so you can't give them a place name. Just from somewhere in the desert which stretches for thousands of miles. Buyers and sellers congregate in Morocco and that's where the meteorites changes hands. Morocco is in North Western Africa (Or NWA for short).

Unclassified means a meteorite has not been placed into a specific type group. For a meteorite to be classified, it must be sent to a lab, usually at a University, that is set up for that purpose. It takes time and you have to donate part of the meteorite. You can get a meteorite classified faster by sending it to a private lab but the fee is normally in the $80.00 range, not really worth it for these smaller, common meteorites. These are most likely Ordinary Chondrites. They are somewhat attracted to a magnet due to their iron content.

A couple of these have had a small piece cut off to show their nice chondrules and matrix. Most of the pictures were taken with my el cheapo digital camera (not too great for small objects), some of the close up pictures were taken by laying them on my flatbed scanner.

Chondrites Stone meteorites that contain chondrules

Chondrules Small spheres of silicaceous minerals associated with early formation of solar system, usually less than 1mm in diameter which formed from molten or partly molten droplets while floating around in space.

H-Chondrite - ordinary chondrite with 'High Iron'. (About 12% - 21% Metallic Iron)

Fusion Crust - in the last couple of seconds of luminous flight, the molten surface of a meteor solidifies to form a thin, black or glossy 'fusion crust'.

4 Small fragments in a magnifying holder. A very rare LL3.1, S2, W3 chondrite found in the Sahara desert in 2005. There are only a couple of chondrites to come out of the Sahara desert with this low of a petrologic subtype and is one of a handful of meteorites in the world that has escaped metamorphism making it a very scientifically valuable specimen. The Total Known Weight for NWA 2796 is only 34 grams in a single stone, meaning only a handful of collectors will have the chance to obtain this desirable meteorite.

Medium (One of at least 1 gram & several small, for a total of 2 grams in weight)

Larger (One of at least 2 grams & several small, for a total of 3 grams in weight)

The 1cm cube is to help illustrate the size of the stone. Does not include stand or cube.

Beautiful, dark fusion crust and nice heat veins. An excellent example that displays very well.

If you would like a Riker mount with your small NWA meteorites, I can add one for $2.00. Pick from one of the three style of frames below. Or, if you would rather buy your own Riker mount and print one of the frames out yourself, click on the frame to expand it, then "right-click" on the frame and select "Save Picture As". Then print out the frame and use an Exacto tool to trim it.

The above Riker frames are from Nakhla Dog Meteorites where you can find some of the nicest meteorites for sale on the Net. He also has many more of the frames on his site. I highly recommend visiting, if you are interested in Meteorites.