Lot 31
Canyon Diablo
The Robert Elliott Meteorite Collection Part III
Auction: 20 August 2013 at 15:00 BST
Description
individual with polished etched 'window'
Dimensions
610g
Footnote
Provenance: ex-Jim Brady Collection
Canyon Diablo (Coconino County, Arizona, USA) IAB (iron) - found 1891
The exquisite 3.5kg Canyon Diablo meteorite offered here has been naturally sculpted by Earth's atmosphere, producing sharp points and surface "thumbprints" known as regmaglypts - evidence of a violent atmospheric passage, at speeds of several miles per second. Space art at its best.
Canyon Diablo is one of the best known of all meteorites; from the mighty ¾ mile diameter crater on the plains near Canyon Diablo, Arizona, known as "Meteor Crater".
After the discovery of iron masses lying around the crater, lawyer and geologist Daniel Barringer recognized the crater as a potential site for mining valuable iron. Barringer staked mining claims on the site and began a search for the huge iron mass, which he believed to lie somewhere deep within the centre of the crater. Barringer spent $600,000 drilling scores of drill holes in the crater floor, searching for the mass without success. After 20 years, Barringer decided that the mass must lie under the South rim and drilled test holes there. Eventually, this too was abandoned.
In 1908, it had been suggested that the large iron mass must have vaporised on impact, and the later discovery of tiny spherical iron droplets, considered to be the remains of the mass, lying NE of the crater, supported this theory. The crater is now operated by Meteor Crater Enterprises as a tourist attraction.