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Canyon Diablo Meteorite

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:35,000.00 - 45,000.00 USD
Canyon Diablo Meteorite

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Auction Date:2020 Jul 16 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Iron meteorite, IAB-MG. Coconino County, Arizona, USA, first known 1891. World-class sculptural iron meteorite weighing 33.8 kg (73 1/3 lbs) and measuring 330 mm x 203 mm x 177 mm. Meteor Crater is the most recognizable and best-known meteorite feature on Earth and is visited by many thousands of tourists annually. Estimates of its age vary from 25,000 to 50,000 years, but all parties concur that it is the finest and best-preserved large meteorite crater on our planet.

It was also the first proven meteorite crater. Geologist, miner, entrepreneur, and visionary Daniel Barringer was convinced the feature was a meteorite crater, defying the popular opinion of so-called experts at the time. Barringer spent a fortune searching for what he believed to be a giant meteorite buried under the crater. He was right about the crater, but wrong about the meteorite. We now know that the mass fragmented and part of it vaporized upon impact. But Barringer’s insight and determination gave him an honored place in meteorite history and the site is still sometimes referred to as Barringer Crater.

Another key figure in space rock history, innovative meteoriticist H.H. Nininger, conducted many years of important research at the site and also opened the world’s first private meteorite museum alongside nearby Route 66. Meteor Crater was studied by legendary geologist Gene Shoemaker and some of the NASA Apollo astronauts were trained there prior to their moon missions.

Canyon Diablo is a steep-sided ravine some distance west of the crater and meteorites found around the crater take their name from it (the convention being that meteorites are named after the nearest town or geographical feature to their fall location and they could hardly be named after the crater that they, themselves, formed). Meteor Crater is internationally recognized as a scientific site of unique importance and meteorite collecting there is no longer permitted. Older specimens that were found during the first half of the 19th century, or earlier, when collecting was still allowed are, therefore, highly desirable.

This uncommonly large and excellent specimen displays a particularly attractive hue of Canyon Diablo’s characteristic reddish-bronze natural patina, as well as abundant fine surface features. Examples of this meteorite with such a striking shape and impressive size appear are very rarely offered, and Canyon Diablo is a must for collectors of historic meteorites and crater-forming irons. Note the (natural) spherical indentation where a soft inclusion, probably graphite, boiled out during flight or weathered away after its fall to Earth. Note also its small pointed “feet” that allow it to stand up easily, making it a lovely display piece that displays magnificently from all angles.

While the vast majority of all recovered Canyon Diablo specimens are shrapnel—shard-like pieces that were ripped apart by the explosive forces of impact and crater formation—the regmaglypts on this piece show it to be a rare and desirable complete individual that landed as a whole mass. An exceptionally fine example from the world’s most famous impact site and highly desirable. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Aerolite Meteorites.