THE NANTAN METEORITE

The Nantan meteorite was recorded to have fallen in Nandan County of Guangxi Province, China, in June of 1516 during the Ming Dynasty. Witnesses reported it came in from the northwest, waving like snakes and dragons with a light as bright as lightning, then disappeared in seconds. Even through the fall was recorded at the time, it was ignored until 1958 when China needed lots of steel for constructing "New China". Everyone was told to look for iron ore. During this time even the cooking woks were melted down to produce steel. Meanwhile the farmers in Nandan County felt lucky to find heavy rocks rich in iron. Unfortunately the "iron rocks" would not melt. This puzzled the people causing them to send a report to the Chinese central government. Geologists arrived to inspect the rocks and discovered that the rocks were iron meteorites.

The meteorite impacted near Lihu Town and the Ladan and Baya area (25.1 N., 107.7E). It was distributed in a northwesterly direction over and area of 27-28 kilometers long and 8 kilometers wide. The Dong and Yao nationalities, two of the 55 ethnic minorities in China, inhabit this area.

The Nantan meteorite appears to have broken up in the air, as pieces of it ranging from 10 grams to over 2,000 Kg. are found scattered over an area of about 400 square miles, with pieces being found with a variety of shapes and textures. It is currently estimated that the total weight was about 9,500 KG.

This is a group III-CD iron meteorite classed as a course octahedrite, with strong crystalline "Widmanstatten patterns" on polished slices. On average the composition is 92.35% Iron, 6.96% Nickel with minor amounts of Carbon, Copper, Cobalt, Sulphur, Phosphorus, Cromium, Gallenium, Germanium, and many different trace elements. The are a number of scarce minerals found in it, including kamacite, taenite, plessite, scheribersite, triolite, graphite, spherlite, sideroferrite, dyslytite, cliftonite and lawrencite.

Unfortunately this meteorite lay in the open for over 450 years and most specimens are very weathered, being somewhat rusted almost all the way through. When cleaned these weathered meteorites show the octahedral patterns very distinctly, and in some interesting forms. We are currently offering a selection of these in our New Arrivals Galleries.