Muonionalustra Meteorite Slice (Sweden)

Muonionalustra Meteorite Slice (Sweden)Muonionalustra Meteorite Slice (Sweden) Mineral: Meteorite var. Muonionalustra Origin: Sweden Color: Metallic Silver Treatment: Acid Etching Approximate Dimensions: 1. 5cm x 1. 5cm x 0. 2cm Weight: 2. 5g 10% of this purchase will be donated to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) [EU] The Muonionalusta meteorite is a meteorite classified as fine octahedrite, type IVA (Of) which impacted in northern Scandinavia, west of the border between Sweden and

Muonionalustra Meteorite Slice (Sweden)

Mineral: Meteorite var. Muonionalustra

Origin: Sweden

Color: Metallic Silver

Treatment: Acid Etching 

Approximate Dimensions: 1.5cm x 1.5cm x 0.2cm

Weight: 2.5g

10% of this purchase will be donated to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) [EU]

The Muonionalusta meteorite is a meteorite classified as fine octahedrite, type IVA (Of) which impacted in northern Scandinavia, west of the border between Sweden and Finland, about one million years BCE.

The first fragment of the Muonionalusta meteorite 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 kilometres (87 mi) north of the Arctic Circle.

The meteorite was first described in 1910 by Professor A. G. Högbom, who named it after the nearby place Muonionalusta on the Muonio River. It was studied in 1948 by Professor Nils Göran David Malmqvist. The Muonionalusta meteorite, probably the oldest known meteorite (4.5653 ± 0.0001 billion years), marks the first occurrence of stishovite in an iron meteorite.

The name Muonionalusta is Finnish: it comes from the name Muonio (+ possessive particle -(o)n-) and alusta, which in this context means "a place below", i.e. downstream from Muonio.

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.

Color may vary in images and videos due to different lightings and angles.