A large iron octahedrite meteorite Campo del Cielo, Argentina, formed 4.5 billion years B.P.
Of robust form, with large scoop regmaglypts throughout the exterior, displaying a fusion crust.
H: 11 in. W: 8 in. (widest point) D: 6 in.
Note
The Campo del Cielo impactor is believed to have fallen to Earth in what is now northern Argentina around 4,200-4,700 years ago. Its age is estimated to be 4.5 billion years, having formed around the time of the development of the Solar System. Of considerable size, around 100 tons have been recovered in modern times. However, its presence appears to have been known in antiquity. In 1576, the Spanish governor in the area commissioned a search party to hunt for the huge mass of iron, which he had learned that native peoples used for their weapons, claiming the mass had fallen from the sky at a site they called “the field of heaven”.
Provenance
Estate of Sydney F. Martin, Doylestown, Pennsylvania and Amelia Island, Florida.