Lot 943
Meteorite From Largest 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 since a large meteor exploded over a remote area of Siberia in 1907. 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 45X28X8 mm complete specimen weighs 24.1 grams which is much larger than the vast majority recovered. This example has a fresh dark brown fusion crust covering the entire top half of the meteorite with the bottom side offering a window inside of the meteorite with some glassy black fusion crust just starting to from and displaying its light gray matrix mixed with specks of iron and rust orange chondrules. 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 8X6 inch Riker mount with a photo of the explosion.
Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,500.
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