Lot 1673
Meteorite From The Biggest Meteor Strike Since 1907. At 9:20 A.M. on the morning of February 15, 2013 a large 8-10 ton 50 foot long meteor exploded 10-15 miles above the ancient city of Chelyabinsk, Russia with the force of over 500,000 tons of TNT 10 times the force of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. More than 1,500 people were injured from flying glass and debris from the resulting shock wave. This was the largest meteor event in the last 100 years since a large meteor exploded over a remote area of Siberia in 1907. The official name of this meteorite is Chelyabinsk, where most of the injuries occurred, but most of the meteorite specimens were found on the frozen surface of Chebarkul Lake, which is a frozen fresh water lake that is located directly in the meteorite strewnfield about 50 miles west of the city of Chelyabinsk. It is both on this snow-covered lake and the surrounding forest where most of the pieces of the stony chondrite LL5 SR4 meteorite were recovered. Because of the immense explosion and ablation through Earth's atmosphere, most of the meteor was either burned up or blasted into a fine powder. More than 95% of the recovered meteorites are extremely small, less than 3 grams in weight.
This beautiful fresh 31 x 28 mm complete specimen weighs 24.4 grams which is much larger than the vast majority recovered. It has a fresh black fusion crust covering more than 75% of the meteorite with the bottom side offering a window inside of the meteorite showing its light gray matrix mixed with specks of iron and rust orange chondrules. This stony chondrite is designated as LL5 SR4 meaning that it is of low iron even for a stony meteorite with the total iron content to be about 10 percent. It is not possible to obtain a fresher meteorite and it is very valuable for study in that there has been no contamination with Earth rocks and erosion. Comes housed in a 8 x 6 inch Riker mount with a photo of the explosion.
Add $20 for domestic shipping.
Estimated Value $1,250 - 2,000.
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