"Campo del Cielo" meteorite - Very nice quality & a particularly large piece

Origin: Argentina

Weight: 81.5g / 408ct (very large & a particularly bright color!)

Size: 77x33x16mm

Campo del Cielo (Argentina)

The Campo del Cielo is an iron meteorite of superlatives. Not only does it have the largest total mass of any meteorite ever found (if you add up all the individual pieces), but it also has an eventful history behind it. As shiny, rust-cleaned fragments, the “campos” can be found in almost every meteorite collection. They are among the cheapest meteorites ever.
Campo del Cielo meteorite from Argentina
Argentine iron meteorite Campo del Cielo, photo: Peter Rüdel/Minerando
Indian discovery and Spanish expedition

According to scientific analyses, the iron meteorite, which originally measured five meters, fell from the sky more than 4,000 years ago in the north of what is now Argentina. The natives probably soon found the countless large and small pieces of meteorites. Perhaps they also used meteorite iron for their purposes. What is certain is that the Indians gave the discovery region the name “Piguem Nónaxá”, which the Spanish conquerors translated as Campo del Cielo (= “Field of Heaven”). What was more surprising was that the Indians at the time reported that iron had fallen from the sky in this region.

Had the meteorite fall been preserved in Indian traditions for at least a millennium and a half? Or had the natives simply sought and found a spiritually appropriate explanation? In any case, when the Spanish conquerors heard the story in the 16th century, they only believed the metal discovery part, but not the heavenly origin. Understandable, because it was only from the beginning of the 19th century that European science accepted the existence of meteorites.

In 1576 the Spanish found the Campo del Cielo meteorite and collected some of its pieces. But it would be another 200 years before a second Spanish expedition set off to this part of the country, which lies around 1,000 kilometers from the coast. The Spanish hoped that the metal stones could have come from a silver mine. But since they still didn't believe in meteorites and only found iron but no silver, they turned around and simply left the apparently low-value stones lying around. As late as the 19th century, the Spanish cut off large parts of the meteorite, melted them down and made them into pistols, which were given as a gift to a North American envoy.
Today's finds

Fortunately, today we know that the Campo del Cielo is by no means worthless. Pieces of the meteorite are still being discovered in the Gran Chaco region. In 2016, a colossus weighing 30.8 tons was pulled out of the ground in Argentina and named Gancedo. Gancedo is - in itself - the second heaviest meteorite in the world, behind Hoba from Namibia and just ahead of the 28.8 tonne El Chaco (also a piece of the Campo del Cielo). However, the “Mesón de Fierro”, the very first Spanish find from 1576, has not been found. Is it still in the Argentine hinterland? After all, it is said to have weighed over 15 tons, so it could hardly have disappeared without a trace.
Shape and special features of the Campo del Cielo

According to chemical analysis, the Campo del Cielo belongs to type IAB, a comparatively common group of iron meteorites. It consists of 92.6 percent iron and 6.7 percent nickel. As a so-called octahedrite, it has a Widmanstätten structure inside, which can be seen in cut and etched pieces. However, most campos are sold as small fragments, often cut up by human hands. Larger pieces show distinct regmaglypts (depressions) on the shiny surface, which melted as it fell through Earth's atmosphere. Since this meteorite is susceptible to rust, precautionary measures such as storing it together with moisture-retaining silica gel are recommended.

We hope you enjoy browsing around in our shop. If you like what you see, we would be very happy if you would follow us here :)

"A stone is the condensed history of the universe"

~Art of Nature Berlin~