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Sikhote-Alin Meteorite [Personal Collection of Geoffrey Notkin]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Sikhote-Alin Meteorite [Personal Collection of Geoffrey Notkin]

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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
From the personal collection of Geoffrey Notkin. Iron meteorite, IIAB. Witnessed fall February 12, 1947, eastern Siberia. Superb individual with sheared face weighing 609.7 grams and measuring 81 mm x 73 mm x 46 mm. Accompanied by the book Meteorite Hunter by Roy Gallant (hardback, used). Data analysis of meteorite falls shows that as the average size of a meteorite increases, the frequency of its fall or recovery decreases. In other words, the larger a meteorite is, the less of them there are. The vast majority of meteorites that have fallen on Earth are tiny. Larger meteorites are, therefore, more valuable, not just because they are more substantial, but also because they are few in number.

Although many pieces fell at the Sikhote-Alin site in 1947, there are precious few larger examples. Perhaps 90 to 95% of all recovered pieces were less than 500 grams in weight. It is, therefore, unusual to see a specimen of this size and quality, especially since no new material is being found at the site.

This excellent specimen shows large, deep and well-formed flowing regmaglypts on over half its surface, as well as abundant flow lines. The reverse face may indicate an in-air collision with another meteorite from the same fall. This scarred face is suggestive of very high-speed contact, rather than an in-flight explosion which might produce a hybrid specimen [see LOT 2459].

As a potential meteorite hurtles through our atmosphere, its surface may melt and flow in tiny rivulets known as flow lines. The patterns formed by these lines can be minute, often thinner than a strand of human hair, and they are one of the most intriguing surface characteristics of meteorites. Flow lines are enthralling when viewed through a loupe or magnifying lens as they give us a glimpse at the elemental forces that were at work, very briefly, on the surface of a meteorite as part of its surface became liquid. Note the abundant and delicate flow lines visible in the detailed images of this example.

This excellent specimen is from the personal collection of Geoffrey Notkin, host of television’s Meteorite Men and CEO of Aerolite Meteorites. It was acquired many years ago directly from a friend of Notkin’s, and a hunter who recovered meteorites at the fall site in the 1990s, and it has remained in his private collection until now. Sikhote-Alin specimens of this size and quality are very rarely offered for sale.

This lot also includes a hardback copy of the out-of-print book Meteorite Hunter: The Search for Siberian Meteorite Craters (McGraw-Hill 2002) by noted science writer, astronomer, and adventurer Roy Gallant. In Chapter Two of this enjoyable work, “Sikhote-Alin: Meteorite Shower of the Century,” Professor Gallant describes a thrilling visit to the Sikhote-Alin strewnfield during the late 1990s. There, he encounters a team of meteorite hunters who are—with a high degree of likelihood—the same hunters that found this piece, given that Notkin acquired it during that same period. The chapter also includes an illuminating and detailed discussion of the fall and the crater field. Interestingly enough, Notkin himself participated in one of Gallant’s expeditions which is chronicled in the same book and he is mentioned in Chapter Six: “Popigai: Mosquitos, Diamonds, and a Very Big Crater.” The book comes with dust jacket and is in like-new condition." Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Aerolite Meteorites.