Wold Cottage is an L6 chondrite that fell in the East Riding of Yorkshire, United Kingdom December 13th of 1795. This meteorite fell at a time when the occurence of rocks falling from the sky was still the subject of heated debate. In fact, though the Wold Cottage meteorite fall was witnessed by several people,…

Almahata Sitta is an anomalous, polymict ureilite (achondrite). Almahata Sitta is the first case in which meteorites have been recovered from a known asteroid that was tracked in space and during its subsequent collision with our planet. The small asteroid 2008 TC3 was first discovered October 6th, 2008, by an automated telescope at Mount Lemmon…

Novo-Urei fell September 4th, 1886, in the village of the same name, in Mordovia, Russia. Although three stones were recovered, two were lost, and only 1.9 kg are now preserved in collections. One of the lost specimens was, reportedly, eaten by the villagers who found it! Novo-Urei is the type specimen and namesake of the…

Coorara is an L6 chondrite found in 1966 north of Haig, Western Australia. It was within veinlets in this meteorite that the mineral majorite was first identified, in 1970 (Smith & Mason, Science). Majorite is a purple high-pressure garnet with a hardness of 7 – 7 ½. In Coorara, and other chondrite meteorites, it occurs…

Bouvante is a eucrite (monomict breccia) achondrite discovered by a French police officer on July 30th, 1978, while he and his family were picnicking. One 8.3 kg, black fusion-crusted meteorite was recovered from a 50-60 cm deep hole, and was the only specimen found. The Bouvante meteorite has been featured on two different countries’ postage…