Lot 730
Rare 31 Pound Muonionalusta With a 3-D Etched Widmanstatten Pattern. Muonionalusta is an iron-nickel meteorite that was found in Norrbotten, Sweden in 1906 and since then additional meteorites have been found in one of the largest strewnfields on earth at 30 10 kilometers. Muonionalusta is classified as a fine octahedrite and has one of the most beautiful Widmanstatten patterns when it is etched. Widmanstatten patterns form when the two alloys of nickel Kamacite(low nickel) and Taenite (high nickel) separate in the iron core of the large asteroid that was destroyed by collision with another large asteroid in the asteroid belt billions of years ago. This separation and pattern form only when the iron core cools at a rate of only a few degrees per million years and is not found on any iron-nickel stones on earth. This amazing 31.38 pound 10 X 7 X 4 inch complete meteorite has been laboriously sand blasted to display one of the most beautiful 3-D Widmanstatten patterns that dramatically shows how a cubic Taenite crystal structure can turn into an octahedrite crystal structure when Kamacite grows on the eight corners of the Taenite cube. The gunmetal meteorite shows many of the 3-D geometric structures formed at every conceivable angle that make Muonionalusta a fine grained Octahedrite iron-nickel meteorite. A really spectacular meteorite to explain and show what Widmanstatten patterns look like throughout the meteorite. Estimate Value $4,500 - UP
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| Realized $3,840 |
