Nantan Meteorites

These are genuine Nantan meteorites that have been polished, sealed, or buffed with a steel brush to expose the beautiful coarse crystalline octahedral structure hidden within. Nantan meteorites make a very nice collector specimen just as they are, although they also could be polished or sawn and then etched to show their amazing Widmanstatten octahedral pattern of inter grown crystallized iron and nickel. The Nantan meteorite fall is one of the very rare witnessed iron meteorite falls on Earth. It fell from the northwest in May of 1516 during the reign of Chinese emperor Zhendge, with falling stars as bright as lightning that "waved like snakes & dragons" and then disappeared in a few seconds. Centuries passed with no further record until 1958 during the severe steel shortage of chairman Mao Tse Tung's "Great Leap Forward" program when even the local farmer's cooking pots were melted down to produce steel. Some farmers at Nantan then discovered heavy iron rich rocks that they were unable to melt. Government investigators arrived and determined the "iron ore" to be meteorites! Nantan Meteorites are a favorite of collectors. The market was flooded with Nantans a few years ago but they are becoming more difficult to find .

These are classified as Type (IIICD) Iron Meteorites