Campo del Cielo Meteorites

Measures 26.1 x 18.7 x 40.1 mm

Stock Item

These are meteorites that fell in Argentina.

Local Indigenous have records where the meteorite shower took place. It caused 26 craters, due to the impact in the area. The impact is estimated to have been 4,200 to 4,500 years ago.

In 1576, the governor of a province in northern Argentina commissioned the military to search for a huge mass of iron, which he had heard that natives used for their weapons

The average composition of the Campo del Cielo meteorites is 6.67% Ni, 0.43% Co, 0.25% P, 0.87% Ga, and 407 ppm Ge, with the remaining 92 to 97% being iron.

These were treated to prevent rust formation, but Campo del Cielo meteorites are up to 97% iron so they will rust if you do not take care of them.

To prevent rust formation you can keep them in a dry environment.

Certificate of Authenticity included

Fragments of Campo del Cielo come in a wide range of sizes from small specimens of just a few grams to much rarer big pieces of tens, and sometimes even hundreds, of kilograms.

A few specimens - mainly still domiciled in Argentina - have masses exceeding 1 tonne.

Many of the small ones, often sold as 'crystals', were once bigger specimens that were cooled down with liquid nitrogen and then shattered into smaller pieces.

The pieces shatter along their octahedral planes; this way the crystalline structure is revealed.

Sometimes they have flat surfaces where the natural crystal faces used to be.

Anyhow, the surfaces of these pieces are not formed during atmospheric flight.