Natural History - Chinese Nantan Meteorite

FELL 1516 A.D., FOUND 1958 A.D.

1 1/8 in. (4.16 grams, 28 mm).

An amorphous fragment of nickel iron meteorite (1AB), cleaned. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Found Nantan, Nandan County, Guangzi Region, China.
Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher.

Literature

See Graham, Bevan and Hutchison, ed., Catalogue of Meteorites, Natural History Museum, 1985, p.253, for details of this fall.

Footnotes

The Nantan meteorite fell in 1516, as recorded in ancient Chinese texts; the fall exploded during descent which resulted in a shower of many individual iron meteorites over an area some 28km x 8km in Nantan County, Guangxi, China. Classified as an iron meteorite; 111CD Course Octohedrite, the composition is approximately 92% iron, 6% nickel and contains more than ten other minerals including kamacite, taenite, dominate, plessite, schreibersite, triolite, graphite and others. In 2000, pieces of the Nantan meteorite were incorporated into an art installation for The Bull Ring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, England. Today, a plaque commemorates the occasion.

CONDITION

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LOT 2503