Click on the links below to read more about the meteorites in the Center’s collection and view meteorite photos!
New Orleans
September’s Meteorite of the Month is New Orleans, an ordinary (H5) chondrite that fell in Louisiana, in 2003. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB88): On the afternoon of September 23rd 2003, a meteorite crashed through the two-story home of Ray and Judy Fausset, who were not at home at the time. Neighbors said that they […]
Nobleborough
August's Meteorite of the Month is Nobleborough, an achondrite (eucrite-pm) meteorite that fell August 7th, 1823, in Maine. It was the first recorded meteorite fall in Maine, and the second ever in the United States. An eye witness mistook the sound of the meteorite's entry into Earth's atmosphere for musket fire, and a nearby flock […]
Chela
Chela is an ordinary chondrite (H4) that fell in the Kahama district of Tanzania around noon on July 12th, 1988. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB 68), locals were alerted to the fall by a loud noise and detonations. They collected several of the fallen stones, and some were sent to the police and to […]
Richmond
June's Meteorite of the Month is Richmond, an ordinary (LL5) chondrite that fell June 4th, 1828 in Virginia. After an explosion mistaken for a cannon boom, a rolling rumble was then followed by the fall of a small stone and the creation of ~30 cm deep crater ~200 m away from some workers in a […]
Puente-Ladron
Puente-Ladron is an ordinary (L6) chondrite found in Socorro County, New Mexico by Harvey H. Nininger. On May 17, 1944, H.H. Nininger stopped for a bit of lunch on a lonely stretch of New Mexico highway and, as was his habit, scanned the area around him for meteorites while eating. “I started on, but turned […]
Moore County
April's Meteorite of the Month is Moore County, an achondrite (eucrite-cm) meteorite that fell the evening of April 21, 1913, in North Carolina. The Moore County fall was accompanied by a "rumbling and zooming" noise, with "no distinct explosions", according to eye witness accounts, and was recovered from a freshly plowed field near Carthage, North […]
Gao-Guenie
Gao-Guenie is an H5 ordinary chondrite that fell in the province of Sissili, Burkina Faso in 1960. For many years, this stone was the source of some confusion in the meteorite world. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB 39, MB 57, MB 83), approximately 16 stones were seen to fall in the village of Gao, […]
Landes
February's Meteorite of the Month is Landes, an iron (IAB-MG) meteorite found in West Virginia in the early 1930s. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB 51): The specimen was plowed up in a hillside cornfield one mile east of the Landes Post Office about 35 to 40 years prior to being called to the attention […]
Leighton
January's Meteorite of the Month is Leighton, an ordinary (H5) chondrite that fell in Alabama in 1907. According to the Field Museum's Oliver Cummings Farrington (1910): This meteorite fell at 8 P. M., Sunday, January 12, 1907, eight miles south of Leighton, Colbert County, Alabama. The exact place of fall was near the old Bethel […]
Wold Cottage
Wold Cottage is an ordinary (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 subect of heated debate. In fact, though the Wold Cottage meteorite fall was witnessed by several […]
