Iron Meteorites
Meteorites made largely of nickel-iron metal, from the cores of differentiated asteroids.
Overview
Dense meteorites of nickel-iron alloy, thought to be fragments of the metallic cores of asteroids that were shattered by collisions — the source of the largest meteorites found on Earth.
Meteorites
5 modelled meteorites.
- Campo del Cielofind
An ancient field of large iron meteorites in Argentina, known to indigenous peoples for millennia, whose fragments include some of the heaviest single meteorite masses ever recovered.
ClassIAB ironCountryArgentina - Canyon Diablofind
The iron meteorite responsible for Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater) in Arizona; fragments are scattered around the rim of the crater it formed some 50,000 years ago.
ClassIAB ironCountryUnited States - Hobafind
The largest known intact meteorite and the largest naturally-occurring piece of iron near the Earth's surface, an ~60-tonne slab still lying where it was found in Namibia.
ClassIVB ironCountryNamibiaDate1920Mass~ 60 t (the largest single meteorite known) - Sikhote-Alinfall
One of the largest observed iron meteorite falls, which broke apart over the Sikhote-Alin mountains in 1947 and scattered thousands of fragments, many with dramatic regmaglypt thumbprint textures, across a strewn field.
ClassIIAB ironCountryRussiaDate1947-02-12 - Willamettefind
The largest meteorite ever found in the United States, an ~15-tonne iron sacred to the Clackamas people of the Willamette Valley.
ClassIIIAB ironCountryUnited StatesMass~ 15 t (largest found in the US)
Knowledge connections
- Group includesHoba
- Group includesSikhote-Alin
- Group includesCampo del Cielo
- Group includesWillamette
- Group includesCanyon Diablo
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.