South America, Argentina, Campo del Cielo, ca. 2700 to 2200 BCE. A fine, iron-rich slab from a meteorite from the world-renowned impact site at Campo del Cielo (also Piguem Nonralta) in Argentina. This slab is polished and shows off the interesting interlacing, banding, and ribboning known as Widmanstatten patterns or Thomson structures, which are naturally occurring layers of material. The shimmering piece is made of an iron-nickel alloy is known as kamacite; a 90% to 95% iron with a 5% to 10% nickel content. Kamacite is only found on earth via meteorites! The 22 plus craters from this 4,500-year-old collision with a giant space rock were discovered by Europeans around 1576 but were well known by the local inhabitants. When analyzed, it was estimated this meteorite itself might be 4.5 billion years old! In all, over 100 tons of meteorites have been recovered making this the largest meteorite field on record. Size: 2" L x 0.16" W x 4.75" H (5.1 cm x 0.4 cm x 12.1 cm)

This meteorite also played an interesting role in human history. It provided iron to indigenous people in the region and the Spanish colonists in the area took notice. In 1576, the governor of the province of northern Argentina sent out a military search party to locate the source of the natives' iron weapons. However, it was not until the late 1700s that early natural scientists began to understand the true source of the iron. In 1783, Ruben de Celis used dynamite to clear the area around the craters and discovered that it was not a mine, as previously suspected, but was instead the remains of a single huge mass. Believing the source to be a volcanic eruption, he sent a sample to the Royal Society in London, where it was found to be 90% iron and 10% nickel and thus from a meteor.

Provenance: private Hagar collection, Wildwood, Missouri, USA

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#168107

The peripheries are rough and sharp. Modern blue pigment stain on minor area of surface. Faces are cut and polished to show off the structures.