Prehistoric Planet Store - Replica fossils including dinosaurs like T. rex, Triceratops, and more!

Polished Muonionalusta Meteorite in Gem Jar Showing Widmanstatten Pattern

CLICK IMAGE TO SEE ENLARGEMENT PHOTO

This 45 mm gem jar contains a polished fragment of meteorite from the Muonionalusta meteorite. This Iron-nickel meteorite shows excellent “widmanstatten” pattern only formed in outer space by extremely slow cooling. This specimen was found in 1906 in tundra near the Muonio River close to the border of Sweden and Finland.

The first fragment of the Muonionalusta was found in 1906 near the village of Kitkiöjärvi. Around forty pieces are known today, some being quite large. Other fragments have been found in a 25-by-15-kilometre (15.5 mi × 9.3 mi) area in the Pajala district of Norrbotten County, approximately 140 kilometers (87 mi) north of the Arctic Circle.
The meteorite was first described in 1910 by Professor A. G. Högbom, who named it after a nearby place on the Muonio River. It was studied in 1948 by Professor Nils Göran David Malmqvist. The Muonionalusta meteorite is probably the oldest known meteorite (4.5653 ± 0.0001 billion years).

Studies have shown it to be the oldest discovered meteorite impacting the Earth during the Quaternary Period, about one million years ago. It is quite clearly part of the iron core or mantle of a planetoid, which shattered into many pieces upon its fall on our planet. Since landing on Earth the meteorite has experienced four ice ages. It was unearthed from a glacial moraine in the northern tundra. It has a strongly weathered surface covered with cemented faceted pebbles.